Hughton and Ryan nominated for October Awards
Chris Hughton and Maty Ryan have been rewarded for Brighton and Hove Albion’s brilliant October by being nominated for the Premier League’s Manager of the Month and the EA Sports Player of the Month awards respectively.
The Albion recorded three wins and three clean sheets in the third month of the season, defeating West Ham United, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0. That has proven enough to see the duo make the shortlists.
For Hughton, it’s the second time he has been up for the award since Brighton’s promotion to the Premier League. The previous occasion came eight months ago when he saw off the challenge of Watford’s Javi Garcia, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, Tottenham Hotspurs’ Mauricio Pochettino and Huddersfield Town’s David Wagner to be named Manager of the Month February. On that occasion, he had to pose with the award as if he was having his Year 11 leavers photos.
This time, he is up against Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, Plucky Little Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe and Chelsea’s Maurizio Sarri – none of whom have a 100% record in October, unlike Hughton.
City moved to the top of the table after picking up two wins and a draw, although Guardiola faced a challenging fixture list which included both Liverpool and Spurs away.
Bournemouth sit sixth in the table despite Howe having spent nothing more than a bag of magic beans and an old cow as the Cherries fairy tale continued. They had two hugely impressive wins on the road, winning at Watford and Fulham with seven goals scored and none conceded along the way.
Sarri is still unbeaten as Chelsea boss having overseen a 2-2 draw with Manchester United and wins away at Southampton and Burnley. Look Bournemouth, they too netted seven goals without conceding.
Ryan faces a much stiffer task if he wants to win his first ever Player of the Month award. There are five other players nominated – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal, Ross Barkley from Chelsea, Fernandinho of Manchester City
Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Callum Wilson from AFC Bournemouth.
Ryan was Brighton’s undoubted match winner in the weekends game against Wolves, three brilliant saves preserving his third clean sheet of the month.
He was nearly as impressive away at St James’ Park and played his part as the Albion defence came under a relentless amount of pressure in the second half against West Ham.
That form has seen Ryan linked with a move to Manchester United should David De Gea depart Old Trafford for Juventus at some point over the next year.
Ryan is also in the running for our WeAreBrighton.com October Player of the Month award and although we probably shouldn’t reveal the scores with over 48 hours of voting left to go, needless to say he is running away with it.
Supporters votes also count towards the two Premier League awards, representing 10% of the votes cast. They are combined with those of an expert panel of Mark Schwarzer, Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand.
You can vote for Hughton here and vote for Ryan here.
