After selecting ten top performers from the top ten teams in the first part; here, I will select ten players from the bottom halved teams. Again there were a few obvious choices combined with some tough ones.
Crystal Palace: Wifried Zaha
The Ivory Coast International has just finished his best season in England. Yet, things started very badly for him and his club this season. After playing full 90 minutes in the opening day home loss to Huddersfield; he was injured and missed the next six matches.
Palace lost all these six matches failing to score in any of these. After 5-0 and 4-0 losses against the two Manchester giants, the match against Chelsea was expected to be another humiliation.
Yet, inspired by the return of Zaha, Palace shocked the last season’s champions to win 2-1. And playing in the CF role in Chris Benteke’s absence, he had the honour of becoming the first Palace player to score this season. He scored the winner just before half time; Palace’s first goal was an own goal scored by César Azpilicueta.
After this there was no looking back for Zaha and for his team. Flourishing in his new position he remained a great threat to the opposition for the entire season. He eventually finished with nine goals.
Bournemouth: Nathan Ake
This was not an easy choice; no one in the south-coast team excelled this season as they finished mid table. Up front, striker Callum Wilson scored a hat-trick against Huddersfield, but generally struggled to perform. Jermaine Defoe and Josh King scored some vital goals but failed to repeat their last season’s success.
Wing back Charlie Daniels quite frequently played further up the pitch; but despite scoring a brilliant goal against Man City, he generally looked a bit subdued.
Ake performed consistently at the centre of the defence and remained calm. This wasn’t easy as overall the Bournemouth defence was a bit shaky throughout the season. There were not enough clean sheets but there can be little complain about Ake’s efforts.
He made big contributions at the opposition end with his strong physical presence. He scored couple of important goals this season; one in the thrilling 3-3 draw against West Ham, the other in a comfortable 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge against his former club.
Like Zaha, Ake was qualified to play for Ivory Coast; but instead he decided to play for the Dutch national team.
Bournemouth’s season was a mixed bag. (John Walton/PA via AP)
West Ham: Marko Arnautovic
At the beginning of the season FA allowed Marko to change his jersey number to seven from 27; and certainly he became the lucky charm for his side. Like Zaha, a midfielder playing in the centre forward position, he scored goals consistently as West Ham finished quite strongly. Of course, he seemed to have a special liking in scoring against his former boss Mark Hughes. And his celebrations after scoring against Stoke and Southampton caused angry reactions from his former boss.
Of course, Arnie is never too far away from controversy. His elbow use against Southampton early on in the season saw a straight red and a subsequent three match ban. He, however, did apologise to the Hammer’s fans for the incidence.
The Austrian can be both brilliant and erratic. With a change of manager now certain, it remains to be seen whether the new manager can help him continue with his brilliant run.
Watford: Abdoulaye Doucoure
The Watford team eventually finished 14th; yet very early on in the season they were flying; and playing entertaining goal scoring football. Two men excelled during this impressive early run; Richrlison and Doucoure. Sadly, the Brazilian badly lost his form over the second half; but Doucoure, from Mali continued his excellent run.
He eventually finished with seven goals, not bad from a deep midfield player. While, he was lucky with his goal against Southampton, most of his other goals came from neat, clean strikes from outside the box.
His striking ability, combined with his neat passing and tireless running makes him Watford’s player of the season in my view.
Brighton: Pascal Gross
Signed at only 3 million pounds, from a relegated team in Bundesliga, Gross was without doubt the bargain of the season. His seven goals and eight assists were absolutely vital for BHA’s EPL survival. He was directly or indirectly involved with around 50 per cent of Brighton’s goals this season. After a slow start; he scored a brace against West Brom as Brighton recorded their first ever EPL win; and he didn’t look back after that.
Apart from the German, Mathew Ryan, the Aussie GK, (another shrewd buy) and Glenn Murray played big parts in Brighton success.
Aussie Mat Ryan has helped keep Brighton in the top division. (Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro)
Huddersfield: Aaron Mooy
Again it was a team effort that saw Huddersfield cross the danger line; but the Aussie midfielder gets the vote for his consistent performance. Also, he had the honour of scoring Huddersfield’s first home goal on their return to the top flight after a long break; as his clean finish ensured a 1-0 win against Newcastle back in last August. He also scored the first goal in the famous 2-1 victory over Man U.
Aaron Mooy of Huddersfield Town. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images)
Southampton: Ryan Bertrand
A balanced left full back, Bertrand had a consistent season throughout. If the Saint’s had better attacking options, then Bertrand would have finished with a lot of assists; as things happened a lot of his pin point crosses from the left flank were wasted by the profligate strikers.
After featuring regularly for the England national side recently, he has to count himself unlucky to miss out form the WC team.
Swansea: Lukasz Fabianski
Jordan Ayew was my original pick, but Fabainski’s final day penalty save combined with Ayew’s lack of goals in the vital last few matches made me give my vote for the Polish GK.
Interestingly, all his three penalty saves (Rooney, Jesus and Shaqiri) came for losing causes. In fact on the first two occasions, the rebounds resulted in goals. Still, these saves show the mettle of the man; and of course, his save points make him a great fantasy asset. In fact, his penalty-save on the final day ultimately decided the FPL top position.
Stoke: Xherdan Shaqiri
After losing Arnautovic to West Ham in the transfer market; Shaqiri was the main play-maker as the boss Mark Hughes tried to play a passing game. Sadly, the Swiss international was surrounded by players, much more suited to the long ball football.
Only Joe Allen seemed to be in the same tune as it became more and more of a lone crusade. Still, Shaqiri continued on producing solo goals and at the same time producing plenty of clear cut chances for the others. Most of these chances were muffed as Stoke became the first team to be relegated.
West Brom: Darren Moore
Unable to find any Baggies player worth mentioning, I have opted for their caretaker manager. How he managed to revive a team with no confidence, no conviction to a five match unbeaten run (including victories over Man U and Spurs and a draw against Liverpool) is beyond my understanding. During his short stay at the dugout, he has done much more than what many players in the side have done over the whole season.
He has been appointed full time manager at the Hawthorns. Now he hopes to win promotion back to EPL with them; something he achieved twice as a player. I want him in the EPL; he is a manager of great ability.
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