Football betting tips: PFA Award
5pts Declan Rice to win PFA Player of the Year award at 4/1
2pts Gabriel to win PFA Player of the Year award at 16/1
1pt David Raya to win PFA Player of the Year award at 50/1
Joe Townsend
What an opening quarter to the Premier League season Arsenal have had.
Five points clear after winning nine of their first 10 games and Brighton are the closest challengers with none of anticipated rivals Manchester City - whose punishment having been charged for breaching financial rules is still unknown - Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester United so far able to deliver on pre-season expectations.
Arsenal are now an incredible 1/4 to follow a 22-year drought with back-to-back titles.
Should that happen it feels almost inevitable one of their star men will win PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR, especially after missing out to Bruno Fernandes last term.
The United captain's record-breaking campaign dragged his team to a third-placed finish and saw him surge to this award; Declan Rice was 4/7 favourite in February.
PFA Player of Year odds (General)
- Declan Rice - 10/3
- Erling Haaland - 3/1
- Martin Odegaard - 5/1
- Cole Palmer - 10/1
- Rayan Cherki - 12/1
- Bruno Fernandes - 16/1
- Gabriel Magalhaes - 16/1
- Elliot Anderson - 20/1
- Pascal Gross - 20/1
- 25/1 bar
It's therefore no surprise to see both Rice and Martin Odegaard in the top three in the betting, but at 4/1 and 5/1 there is enough reason to be sceptical - 10 of the last 17 winners were not part of title-winning teams.
Wayne Rooney (09/10), Gareth Bale (10/11, 12/13), Robin van Persie (11/12), Luis Suarez (13/14), Mohamed Salah (17/18, 21/22), Virgil van Dijk (18/19) Kevin De Bruyne (19/20) and now Fernandes were all recognised by their peers for individual brilliance.
While it is true that there is currently a shortage of realistic candidates from outside Arsenal's squad, with perhaps Alexander Isak and Erling Haaland the only players showing glimpses, at this stage last season you could have said exactly the same thing.
Cole Palmer, for example, has the potential to click in a similar way to Fernandes should Chelsea, and in turn he, find the kind of consistency that Michael Carrick brought to the second half of United's 25/26 campaign.
Right now we can only back what we have seen, and they are Arsenal players.
This is an award where narrative and media coverage plays a huge role. For all the praise Mikel Arteta's side receive one area of their game gets much more focus: defence.
GABRIEL MAGALHAES (16/1) and DAVID RAYA (50/1) have been the immovable parts of arguably the best defensive unit on the planet, one that has a great chance of breaking multiple Premier League records.
Arsenal have already kept seven clean sheets, putting them on track to break a record set in Jose Mourinho's first season in England (04/05) when Chelsea registered 24. Having been breached just five times they may challenge the astonishing record of 15 goals conceded from that season too.
Captain and centre-back John Terry was voted PFA Player of the Year in '05, hard to argue with given Chelsea ended a 50-year wait for a top-flight title and set numerous other records on the way. Petr Cech was overlooked, as is usually the case - Pat Jennings (1976) and Peter Shilton (1978) are the only goalkeepers to win this award.
That kind of history could work in Raya's favour, though, with their plenty of fallout from Spain team-mate Unai Simon recently winning the Yashin Award for the world's best goalkeeper despite barely having to make a save in the World Cup and playing his club football for Athletic Bilbao.
Should Raya's fellow professionals feel his brilliance isn't being fairly recognised, they could choose to vote for him so his contribution to the best defensive record in the modern era is properly acknowledged.
We can't ignore history however, so backing GABRIEL to a larger stake with RAYA as a longshot is how to play it.
Is Declan Rice now the best player in the Premier League?
Jake Osgathorpe
I'll avoid rehashing what has already been covered, but barring serious injury DECLAN RICE will surely win PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR, an award that in pretty much any other year he would have lifted last season.
That only strengthens his chances this time around, as does the fact that he has been given a more creative role that is reaping rewards for the Gunners with him sitting at the top of the Premier League assists charts on five.
Accolades are already beginning to roll in too, with the England vice-captain the cover star for British GQ's Men of the Year for 2026, and more pertinently Arsenal are reportedly close to announcing he has agreed a new five-year contract with the club.
It's widely agreed Rice is the best midfielder in the Premier League and should his side go on to lift successive titles - which they are already heavily odds-on to do - then it seems a sure-fire thing he scoops this award.
The 4/1 he can be backed at will be long gone soon.
Odds correct at 15:40 GMT (11/11/26)
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