{"id":455740,"date":"2026-02-03T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455740\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:12:10","slug":"gary-lineker-backs-man-utd-star-to-beat-arsenal-duo-to-pl-player-of-the-season-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455740\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker backs Man Utd star to beat Arsenal duo to PL Player of the Season award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Lineker reckons Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes has a chance of beating Arsenal duo Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes to the Premier League Player of the Season award.<\/p>\n

The Red Devils have been in brilliant form since Michael Carrick took over as interim manager with the former midfielder leading them to three wins out of three.<\/p>\n

Carrick started off by winning two of the hardest games of the season against Man City and Arsenal before overcoming Fulham on Sunday in a different kind of challenge.<\/p>\n

Fernandes has been a bright spark in a miserable few years for Man Utd<\/a> under Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, and the Portugal international has provided four assists in Carrick\u2019s first three matches.<\/p>\n

That has taken Fernandes to five goals and 12 assists in 21 Premier League matches this season and Lineker reckons the Man Utd midfielder could pip Arsenal duo Rice and Gabriel to the Player of the Season gong.<\/p>\n

Lineker said on\u00a0The Rest is Football podcast<\/a>: \u201cThey\u00a0have got\u00a0some talent in that [Manchester United] squad.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Premier League winners and losers: Arsenal, West Ham, Ekitike, Glasner, Carrick, Newcastle<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[Matheus] Cunha and [Bryan] Mbeumo have settled in very well. Bruno is\u00a0playing\u00a0further forward and got himself a couple of assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking a bit earlier on with a few of the lads about the Player of the Year award and the possible frontrunners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0only\u00a0February\u00a0so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0early but if United continue to go\u00a0really well\u00a0and Bruno gets a few more goals and assists\u2026 I mean, who else would be in the running?<\/p>\n

\u201cErling Haaland\u00a0will be if he starts scoring again which he will.\u00a0Declan\u00a0Rice and Gabriel, who is a\u00a0fantastic\u00a0defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0no one obviously\u00a0at the moment but\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0a bloody good footballer you know, Bruno Fernandes.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a really\u00a0good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0January transfer window winners: mainly Man City, Sandro Tonali, Daniel Levy, February<\/a><\/p>\n

Fellow pundit Micah Richards added on the Man Utd captain:\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0a top, top player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manager is playing him in the right position and\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0shining. Even when United\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0doing great he always stepped up with something.\u201d<\/p>\n

A maximum nine points from Carrick\u2019s first three matches has seen Man Utd move up to fourth in the Premier League table as they look to qualify for the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Lineker added: \u201cWhat a great start for Michael Carrick,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0great for him and a real lift for the club the way\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0see\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0any real point of\u00a0making a decision\u00a0before the end of the season. You\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0win three or four games and make the decision and give him a contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sensible thing\u00a0would be to wait until the end of the season and see how it goes and then look at the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0done everything right so far. He\u2019s\u00a0clearly an\u00a0intelligent\u00a0guy, we could see that by the way he played.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a really,\u00a0really good\u00a0start.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT:\u00a0January transfer window losers: Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Liverpool, All of us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker reckons Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes has a chance of beating Arsenal duo Declan Rice and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[3361,64,63,62966,47064,596,48685,818,1525,44,1614,85],"class_list":["post-455740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-declan-rice","tag-football","tag-gary-lineker","tag-home-page","tag-manchester-united","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}