Conte, Hojbjerg, Son, Lloris pick up September Premier League monthly award nominations

September was a good month if you were a Tottenham Hotspur supporter. Although their toughest match, away at Manchester City, was postponed due to the death of the Queen, Spurs won all of their league matches and are still undefeated and within a point of league-leading (ugh) Arsenal. That strong month has led to league award nominations for Antonio Conte, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Hugo Lloris, and Son-Heung-Min.

Let’s start with Sonny. You all saw this coming, right? Son, who broke his scoring duck in spectacular fashion last weekend against Leicester City, has had two of his goals nominated for Premier League Goal of the Month for September. And yes, it’s those two long-range bangers. Here are highlights in case you’ve spontaneously developed amnesia or just want to watch them again.

Are we surprised by this? No, we are not. Sonny’s first two goals were stunners, curlers into the corner from long range that were both incredible to watch and also deeply cathartic. After six league matches in which he failed to get off the mark, the 2021-22 joint Golden Boot winner announced his return to scoring ways in emphatic fashion, and none too soon.

The other nominees for the award are Brentford’s Ivan Toney who also had two goal nominations both against Leeds, Bournemouth’s Philip Billing against Nottingham Forest, Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic for his curler against Spurs, Brighton’s Alexis MacAllister for a free kick blast against Leicester, and Fulham’s Joao Palinha for another long shot against Forest.

I’m biased, but none of those are anywhere near as good as Son’s second goal (except maybe Mitrovic, but shhh this is a Tottenham blog). You can watch all of them on the Premier League’s website.

Elsewhere, Antonio Conte picked up his second consecutive Premier League Manager of the Month nomination for September, and this time he’s the favorite after Spurs won both of their matches this month with a +5 goal differential. His competition is Manchester United’s new boss Erik Ten Hag who also went 2-0 with a +3 GD, and Bournemouth’s Gary O’Neill, who went 1-1 in September.

Pierre-Emile “General Ho” Hojbjerg also picked up a nomination — this time for Premier League Player of the Month after picking up a goal and an assist in both of Spurs’ league matches in September. He’s up against Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, Bournemouth’s Billing, Everton’s Alex Iwobi, Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey, and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford.

Finally, Hugo Lloris has had a number of pretty incredible saves this month, but the one that got him a nomination for Save of the Month in September was his outstanding stop against Fulham. I’m not sure it’s enough to stop Jordan Pickford from taking home the award, however, as Pickford had two nominations this month.

Out of all the nominees, I’d say that Conte is the most likely to be lifting a trophy when the awards are announced in a week or so, but who knows — maybe it’ll be a Spurs clean sweep for September. It’s been relatively unusual that Spurs have had a nominee in every category. Would be pretty neat if that happens!