Arsenal 24yo wins Player of the Month award

Arsenal have confirmed that Riccardo Calafiori has won the club’s Player of the Month award for August, receiving a massive 74% of the fan vote.

Calafiori had an excellent start to the season at left-back, scoring in the first minute of Arsenal’s Community Shield win over Manchester City.

The 24-year-old then followed that up with assists in both of Arsenal’s opening games against Coventry City and Aston Villa, as well as helping the team to keep clean sheets in all three matches.

Calafiori winning Arsenal’s award should be no real surprise, as he was also nominated for the Premier League’s award.

The Italian international was the Gunners’ only inclusion on the shortlist of eight, alongside Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro, Rayan Cherki, Bruno Fernandes, Mamadou Sangare, Konstantinos Tzolakis, and Yoane Wissa.

Voting has concluded for the Premier League award, but the winners hasn’t yet been revealed. The Premier League will publish the final result on Friday, September 11th.

After his strong August, Calafiori started September by helping Arsenal to another win over Chelsea. He then received a well-earned rest in the Champions League against Napoli.

But if the former Bologna defender wants to retain his Player of the Month award, he’ll be returning to some stiff competition. Martin Odegaard has won both of the official Player of the Match awards in September so far, and he’s an early frontrunner for this month’s accolade.