Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes has won the December 2020 Premier League Player of the Month Award, retaining the prize he claimed in November of the same year.

“The ManUtd star wins his fourth EA SPORTS FIFA Player of the Month award,” the Premier League tweeted on its handle on Friday afternoon.

The Portuguese netted three goals in six Premier League matches for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side as they went unbeaten in December, winning four games and drawing two.

He equally provided four assists in the last month of the year including the pass to Marcus Rashford for the injury-time winner against Wolves.

Fernandes has scored 15 goals in all competitions so far this season after playing 26 games, helping the 1999 European champions move to the summit of the Premier League and three points ahead of Liverpool who they face at the Anfield on Sunday.

He joined Manchester United in January 2020 from Portuguese giants, Sporting Lisbon, signing a five-and-half-year contract with the Red Devils.

Dean Smith is the fourth Villa manager to have claimed the prize so far. Photo: Twitter@AVFCOfficial.
Villa Coach Wins

Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith also won the Premier League Manager of the Month after masterminding a five-game unbeaten streak. The run saw Villa ending 2020 in fifth place as they scored eight goals and conceded one in December of the same year.

It is the third time Smith has been nominated for the prize this campaign after he was shortlisted in September and November 2020 but lost out to Ancelotti to Nuno Espirito Santo respectively.

“Smith’s win sees him become just the fourth Villa manager to claim the award, following in the footsteps of Brian Little (Jan 1995), John Gregory (Sep 1998 and Sep 2001) and Martin O’Neill (Apr 2007, Nov 2007, Dec 2008 and Apr 2010),” Aston Villa wrote on their website.