Every month, Mauricio Pochettino and at least one Tottenham Hotspur player gets nominated for the Premier League’s monthly awards, but it feels like they rarely seem to actually win them. Well, not this time! Spurs finally got their due. Mauricio Pochettino won the Barclay’s Premier League Manager of the Month, and Son Heung-Min took home the EA Sports Player of the Month award.
Pochettino winning Manager of the Month shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rather, it would’ve been shocking if he DIDN’T win, after Spurs won all of their league games in April in the midst of a nine-game winning streak. During this stretch, Spurs had road victories over Swansea, Crystal Palace, and Burnley, while also beating Bournemouth, Watford, and (of course) Arsenal at home. And throughout, Spurs conceded only one goal.
Congratulations to Mauricio on being named @premierleague manager of the month for April! #COYS pic.twitter.com/n6TZsHokuR
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 12, 2017
Poch was nominated along with Chelsea’s Antonio Conte, Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho, Leicester City’s Craig Shakespeare, and Hull City’s Marco Silva. This is the third career Manager of the Month award for Poch (he won one with Southampton), and amazingly the first since February of 2016.
Sonny took home the Player of the Month award and had to overcome two of his teammates in order to do so: Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen were also nominees. Sonny scored five goals in April, a remarkable achievement.
Well done, Sonny! Our number seven has won the @premierleague player of the month award for April. #COYS pic.twitter.com/jYZ9IthZEJ
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 12, 2017
It’s the second award for Son — he also won in September of 2016 — and he’s the only South Korean ever to win a PL monthly award. Just winning it twice is incredible: to put this into context, Sonny has now won as many career POTM awards as Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, Cesc Fabregas, and David Ginola.
Congratulations to both Pochettino and Son!