Arsène Wenger and Nacho Monreal have made the shortlist for Premier League Manager and Player of the Month for October.
Arsenal had a good month overall, even if it could and should have been better. The Gunners beat Brighton comfortably, then lost late on to Watford, before recovering to demolish Everton after coming from behind. They then repeated this trick against Swansea. Well, the coming from behind bit at least.
Perhaps it’s these turnarounds that have earned Arsène Wenger his nomination. Monreal’s defensive performances plus a couple of goals explain why he was nominated as well.
Monreal scored the opening goal against Brighton and helped the Gunners to a clean sheet that day. He also scored the equaliser against Everton to kick-start the comeback win. Although he couldn’t help the team to any more clean sheets, Nacho was largely considered the most consistent performer in the back-three in October by Arsenal fans.
Monreal will have to overcome Glenn Murray (Brighton), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Nick Pope (Burnley), Leroy Sane (Manchester City) and Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) to win the award.
Meanwhile Wenger has Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham), Sean Dyche (Burnley) and Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) as competition.
The favourites are probably the City boss and players, considering they’re already the runaway league leaders. However, you can add your vote to the mix through the links below: