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The Guardian - UK

Sport

Niall McVeigh

Six Chelsea players named in PFA’s Premier League team of the year

The PFA team of the year. Photograph: Guardian

Six Chelsea players feature in the PFA’s Premier League team of the year, which was announced on Twitter before Sunday’s PFA Awards ceremony.

The Player of the Year nominees Diego Costa and Eden Hazard are joined in the team by the defenders John Terry, Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic and the midfielder Nemanja Matic, while Harry Kane features after scoring 31 goals for Tottenham this season.

Manchester United’s David de Gea is named in goal, with fellow Player of the Year nominees Philippe Coutinho and Alexis Sánchez also included. Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand, who joined the Saints permanently from Chelsea in January, completes the team at left-back.

The PFA announced the team on Twitter at midday on Sunday.

Hazard, Costa, De Gea, Coutinho, Kane and Sánchez are nominated for the PFA Men’s Player of the Year award, which will be announced during the ceremony at Grosvenor House in central London. Hazard, De Gea, Coutinho and Kane are also nominated for the Young Player of the Year award, alongside the Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling.

Luis Suárez was crowned Player of the Year last season, before leaving Liverpool for Barcelona in the summer. Hazard, the bookies’ favourite to inherit Suárez’s title, was named Young Player of the Year at the 2014 awards. Hazard and Cahill are the only two players in this year’s XI who also made it into last season’s team.

The PFA’s Championship Team of the Year features players from nine different clubs.

Watford may be one win from the Championship title but their striker Troy Deeney is the only Hornets player included in the PFA’s Championship team of the year, with players from nine different clubs selected. Bournemouth (Matt Ritchie and Simon Francis) and Middlesbrough (George Friend and Grant Leadbitter) each have two representatives in the team, while Ipswich’s Daryl Murphy, the division’s top scorer, is also included.

In League One the team of the season is dominated by the champions, Bristol City, who have five players in the side. The division’s top four sides blanket the side, with Eoin Doyle, who left Chesterfield for Cardiff in February, the only player not representing the Robins, Preston, MK Dons or Swindon.

League Two’s top scorer, Matt Tubbs of Portsmouth, features alongside his team-mate Jed Wallace in the PFA’s team of that division. Shrewsbury (Conor Goldson and Ryan Woods) and Southend (Daniel Bentley and Ben Coker) also have two players each in the line-up.

The PFA also announced their team of the year for the Women’s Super League (WSL). It includes four of the nominees for the organisation’s Women’s Player of the Year award – Chelsea’s Eniola Aluko and Ji So-Yun, Birmingham City’s Karen Carney, and Lucy Bronze, who featured for the WSL champions, Liverpool, last season but has since joined Manchester City. Bronze’s club and international team-mate Jill Scott is also included, along with the England squad members Casey Stoney and Jo Potter.