You may be surprised, and you certainly won't like them all, but FFT has crunched the numbers with those clever bods at Opta Towers to craft our Stats Zone Awards Premier League Team of the Season.
Read on to find out who's made the cut...
Goalkeeper: Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea)
Fabianski finally got the first-team football he craved by leaving Arsenal after seven years, and the Pole has justified the faith shown in him by Garry Monk with a stellar first season in Wales. His 13 clean sheets were only fewer than Joe Hart’s 14, but his 137 saves were matched by no one. His shots-to-save ratio was behind only Arsenal’s David Ospina and Sunderland giant Costel Pantilimon.
It contributed to Swansea’s best Premier League season yet, on the back of which their No.1 picked up the Players’ Player of the Year award. It’s no wonder they’re so keen to tie him down to a new contract, what with his current release clause being only £4 million according to reports, and the likes of Borussia Dortmund sniffing.
Right-back: Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)
Another big season from the Serbian, who continued to prove why big can be beautiful even at right-back. Four goals and five assists was a big improvement on 2013/14, and the 31-year-old played every minute of every Premier League game this season (with the exception of coming off after his late red card against Manchester United at Old Trafford in October) for a Chelsea side that swept the competition away. It’s testament to Ivanovic that you just expect this level of performance from him these days.
Centre-back: Jose Fonte (Southampton)
Nobody could have foreseen just how successful Fonte has been at Southampton since joining from Crystal Palace in the Saints’ League One season of 2009/10. But the Portuguese’s stock has risen exponentially with his team's, helping them mount an unlikely assault for the Europa League thanks to a formidable backline that kept 15 clean sheets and shipped just 33 goals this season, behind only champions Chelsea (32). Fonte himself made more tackles (78) and interceptions (119) than any other Premier League centre-back this season. Unsurprisingly, Ronald Koeman’s skipper earned both the Fans’ and Players’ Player of the Year awards at Saints’ end-of-season bash – and now he can count FFT among his many admirers.
Centre-back: Ashley Williams (Swansea)
Finding a central defender you can rely on isn’t so easy these days, but Swansea have long been able to rest easy knowing the long-serving Williams is keeping guard for them. The 30-year-old Wales international has just completed his eighth season with the Welsh outfit having been with them since promotion from the third tier in 2007/08, captaining Monk’s men to an impressive league finish and record points haul.
Williams made the second-most clearances behind Burnley’s Jason Shackell – 204 more than his regular partner Federico Fernandez, who made only nine fewer appearances – and the second-most interceptions.
Left-back: Leighton Baines (Everton)
The most chances created by a defender in the Premier League (70), and with that the most assists (9) once again – suffice to say, creative excellence has come to be assumed from Baines for some time now. For large parts of the season it felt like the Everton left-back was the only player capable of making things happen for the Toffees, acting as a faux playmaker from deep with much of the play directed through him.
Only Gylfi Sigurdsson, Chris Brunt, Angel Di Maria (all 10), Santi Cazorla (11) and Cesc Fabregas (18) crafted more goals than Baines this season – which makes you wonder why this brilliant full-back isn’t anywhere near as influential in an England shirt.
Central midfielder: Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)
Not everyone was convinced when Chelsea parted with €25m to re-sign Matic from Benfica in January 2014, but a year-and-a-half on it’s impossible to imagine the Blues’ first team without the Serbian enforcer in it.
Matic thrives on the ugly, having made more tackles (129) than anyone else this season, but also offers a reliable outlet from which Chelsea can begin attacks – only six players completed more passes in the opposition half than the 26-year-old (1,038) this season.
Matic is a manager’s dream; Chelsea’s crucial comfort blanket who allows the likes of Fabregas Eden Hazard to thrive with his unselfish midfield play. “Kurt Zouma did amazingly well for us but Matic is Matic," purred Mourinho in March.
Central midfielder: Francis Coquelin (Arsenal)
Arsenal fans would have cackled like deranged lunatics had you told them Coquelin would be this revered by the season’s end, but the little Frenchman from Laval has only gone and done it.
He qualifies for this team having played at least half the season, but you know the story: underwhelming youth product dragged back from loan at Charlton to cover for latest Arsenal injury crisis.
It was quite literally his last chance to impress after three-and-a-half years of relative stasis, and even then his future already seemed sealed for the summer whatever happened.
But after being thrown into Arsene Wenger’s first team against West Ham on December 28, Coquelin has been simply brilliant. His inclusion coincided with the Gunners’ terrific run for the second half of the season when they won 12 of 14 matches to threaten Manchester City in second.
Despite limited appearances he made the fourth-most interceptions in the Premier League among midfielders this season (79) – and the most of all players since that West Ham game.
Central midfielder: Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)
A season of two halves for Fabregas, much like many previous in his career, but still one in which he carved out a glorious 18 assists – the second-most ever in a Premier League campaign behind Thierry Henry’s 20 in 2002/03 and seven more than his next-best rivals. The Spaniard created the second-most chances overall (95, Hazard 101) and the most big opportunities (16), but a tail-off of form in the final few months could only leave Blues fans wondering how frightening his assist count could have been.
There was no place for the former Arsenal and Barcelona man in the PFA Team of the Year, much to Mourinho’s disgust – "With the season he is having, the number of assists, the quality of his game; for him not to be there is strange," said the bemused Chelsea chief – but don’t worry Jose, he’s got a spot in ours.
Attacking midfielder: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)
Sanchez has set the bar for Arsenal attackers this season – and it’s an incredibly high one. Sixteen goals in his debut Premier League campaign is the most of any midfielder in the top flight, but the Chilean also weighed in with eight assists – three shy of Gunners team-mate Santi Cazorla.
Only Eden Hazard beat him for completed dribbles and duels won; Fabregas for big chances created. Simply, Arsenal’s £35m signing from Barcelona has demonstrated it all while pooh-poohing the notion that foreign players always need longer to adapt in England.
"When I played for Barcelona, I knew that some home games were going to be easier than others,” he told Arsenal.com recently, reflecting on his first season.
"[But in England] every team is really strong. For instance, you cannot take for granted any score in this league. Any team can score goals in the last minutes of the game and I like that."
Attacking midfielder: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
The twinkle-toed Belgian won every domestic individual award going after inspiring Chelsea to their first title in five years, combining unselfish team play with regular moments of attacking wizardry. Fourteen goals and nine assists beat his combined tally for 2013/14, but the real joy came from beyond the numbers: the dribbles that left opponents dazed and confused, his movement off the ball and, perhaps above all, convincing Mourinho that others should be left to take care of defensive duties.
Hazard’s 179 completed take-ons was an almost-embarrassing 64 more than any other player in the league, putting him well clear of Cristiano Ronaldo (54) and even Lionel Messi (174) – thus making him Europe's best dribbler this season. Keep this up and he might be playing with one of them sooner rather than later.
Striker: Sergio Aguero (Man City)
If only. The two words Manchester City fans are tired of associating with Aguero. If only he could be relied on to stay fit for an entire season then maybe, just maybe, there’s more out there for them.
That applies to the Champions League more so than the Premier League this year – for the last two seasons, a lack of fitness has affected the Argentine around the last 16 stage – but the point stands. Aguero has glided almost effortlessly to 26 goals in the Golden Boot charts after managing 10 more league appearances than last season, demonstrating once again why he’s the top flight’s undisputed best striker. He also provided the joint-most assists of any hitman (8), attempted the most shots (148) and completed the most dribbles (87).
Four- and three-goal hauls at the Etihad Stadium against Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers respectively demonstrated the deadly class of a player fit for any side in the world. And he’s still only 26.
Stats Zone Premier League Goalkeeper of the Year 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Full-Back of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Centre-Back of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Central Midfielder of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Attacking Midfielder of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Striker of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Player of 2014/15
Stats Zone Premier League Young Player of 2014/15
