The awards ceremonies for other leagues either take place at the beginning or end of the year, or before the season starts. The Premier League is different; its various awards are presented during the season, every April.
Once April arrives, the media's attention shifts partly to the winners of the various awards.
There are three annual best player awards in England: one is the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) award, voted for by players from Premier League teams; another is the Football Writers' Association (FWA) award, chosen by four hundred English football journalists; and the third is the PFA's Fans' Player of the Year award, voted for by English fans.
However, this year there's little suspense. Last year, someone could still compete with Chen Yingxiong, but this year it's almost certain that Chen Yingxiong will be the Premier League's Player of the Year.
Last season, Van Persie could still compete with Chen Yingxiong; in April, the two were neck and neck, giving the judges a headache. As a result, the three awards were ultimately spread out. Van Persie narrowly won the PFA Player of the Year award, Chen Yingxiong was awarded the FWA Player of the Year title, and the fans voted for Van Persie as their Player of the Year.
Chen Yingxiong didn't win the Player of the Year award voted for by the players last season; clearly, the players felt that Van Persie had a tougher time. However, it was also related to the timing of the voting. If the voting had taken place after the season ended, Chen Yingxiong would likely have swept all three awards because he broke so many records.
The Player of the Year award isn't tied to team honors, so even if Liverpool performs poorly, it won't affect Chen Yingxiong's chances of winning.
Of course, it would be even better if he also had team honors at the same time.
Last season, Chen Yingxiong was only selected for the PFA Premier League Team of the Year in the various PFA awards. He was listed alongside Van Persie and Rooney in the center forward position.
He didn't even get the PFA Young Player of the Year award because he was too old—the PFA Young Player of the Year award is only open to players under the age of twenty-three. Last year, the 2012 awards were for the previous year, the 2011-12 season's best young player. However, Chen Yingxiong had already turned twenty-three that season and didn't meet the "under twenty-three" criteria. So, although his performance was outstanding, he could only miss out on the award.
But this season is different. From the first round of the league to now, Chen Yingxiong's performance has been dominant. No one can compete with him in the forward position. He tops the league's scoring charts, and he has also helped Liverpool achieve unimaginable success in the league. His performance in the Europa League has also been great, with twenty-five goals dazzling many.
With such outstanding performance, if he still doesn't win the awards, then there must be something shady going on.
So this year, the media's focus isn't on guessing and discussing who will be the best player; instead, they're all summarizing Chen Yingxiong's wonderful performances over the past year and explaining why Chen Yingxiong can sweep so many awards—judging by the media's tone, wouldn't you think the results have already been announced?
In fact, everyone has only announced the nominees at this point. Chen Yingxiong is on the list, but it hasn't been confirmed that he'll definitely win.
But the media is so sure, obviously because there's no suspense this season.
The final result is indeed like this.
First, on Sunday, the PFA announced their Player of the Year results. Chen Yingxiong deservedly won the award.
Then, on Monday, the FWA announced their results, and Chen Yingxiong was once again named Player of the Year.
A few days later, the third annual Player of the Year award, voted for by English fans, was also announced. The winner wasn't surprising at all; it was still Chen Yingxiong!
"Hero! Hero! Hero!" Some media used this title to report on Chen Yingxiong winning three awards in a row.
Other media joked: "Although Chen Yingxiong's team has never won the 'Triple Crown,' he himself has already won the 'Triple Crown' in advance..."
Chen Yingxiong was very busy this weekend. First, he attended the awards ceremony held by the PFA, and then he attended the awards dinner held by the FWA for him.
He seemed very happy to win the awards. Especially when he won the PFA's Player of the Year award, his comment on winning was: "Well deserved. Actually, I voted for myself too!"
This remark caused a burst of laughter at the scene. During the voting process, someone will definitely cast their precious vote for themselves, but Chen Yingxiong is the first to openly announce and admit that he voted for himself. He truly is a person of genuine character...
When defending his FWA Player of the Year award, he said: "Conquering reporters is not an easy thing. I know that English reporters are particularly picky, have strange tempers, often like new things and get tired of the old, and deliberately go against popular tastes. So I am particularly happy and honored to be able to win this award for two consecutive years!"
When he received the Fans' Player of the Year award, he said: "It's very obvious that the English fans this season are particularly knowledgeable about football!"
While Chen Yingxiong swept the three awards, Liverpool Football Club also published an article on its website analyzing Chen Yingxiong's performance this season.
Because of Chen Yingxiong's awards, all Liverpool fans were immersed in a joyous atmosphere.
Among them, the newly established "Red Giant Bear" fan organization was the most excited. Some fans even hoped to add three stars to their logo to represent the three honors Chen Yingxiong received.
However, this request was rejected by Tom Jackson: "If we do that, I'm afraid our logo will become the European Union flag, and we won't have enough stars..."
Phil Gibbs joked: "Then we'll use the American flag as the logo, haha!"
Adam Smith said: "The American flag probably won't be enough either..."
※※※
After Martin O'Neill adjusted his strategy, he only needed to ensure a top-three finish in the league. Therefore, in the league matches before the semi-final against Lyon, O'Neill decided not to play with his full squad, otherwise, it would be difficult for them to play at home, and the opponents weren't strong either.
Chen Yingxiong did get the chance to start. After all, anyone could be rotated, just not him—this is what Martin O'Neill learned after the team was held to a 1-1 draw by West Ham United.
Chen Yingxiong didn't disappoint his coach. He scored one goal and assisted another in the game, helping the team defeat Stoke City 2-0 at home.
After playing this game, O'Neill focused his work on the Europa League semi-finals.
The first leg of the match was played at Lyon's home stadium.
The schedule was more favorable to Liverpool. The team playing away first had plenty of room to maneuver, without having to go all-in right from the start.
Chen Yingxiong was very happy to meet Lyon in the semi-finals.
In an interview with reporters, he said: "Lyon always leaves me with good memories, so I particularly like playing against Lyon. Every time, Lyon never lets me go back empty-handed."
This was simply blatant provocation and a slap in the face.
Who could stand it?
Lyon certainly couldn't stand it. Only a day after Chen Yingxiong said this, fierce counterattacks came from Lyon.
"Chen Yingxiong is a very powerful player, but his character is not good. He disrespects his opponents so much that he will suffer sooner or later, maybe in the middle of the week?"
"Liverpool's possession of a player like Chen Yingxiong is simply a stain on Liverpool's century-old reputation! His actions do not conform to Liverpool's values at all and are completely contrary to the spirit of Liverpool!"
……
Many people think that psychological warfare can only be launched by the two coaches. No one would have thought that Chen Yingxiong doing this was also a kind of psychological warfare. They only thought Chen Yingxiong was habitually arrogant, but they didn't know that they had already been provoked by Chen Yingxiong and lost their minds.
Chen Yingxiong came forward to provoke and ridicule his opponents, while Martin O'Neill seemed very low-key. He didn't come out to say anything. When reporters asked him to comment on Chen Yingxiong and Lyon's war of words, he also said that it was the players' own business, and he didn't want to interfere. He just wanted to focus all his attention on the game itself.
Of course, he still stimulated Lyon relatively tactfully: "But I think Yingxiong has the freedom to say that, because he does win more than he loses when facing Lyon..."
Chen Yingxiong disagreed with this. He then said: "Boss is wrong. It's not 'wins more than loses' when I face Lyon! I! Chen Yingxiong!" He pointed to himself with his thumb, "I have never lost to them at all!"
These two teachers and disciples seemed to be performing a double act... cooperating tacitly and making the people of Lyon so angry that they were fuming.
"He hasn't lost to Lyon yet? Then he will lose this time!"
In fact, Chen Yingxiong's words were not just psychological warfare; he really despised Lyon.
Lyon was a pushover he used to score goals in the Champions League. Now in the Europa League, it would be strange if he still looked up to Lyon. Even if Lyon made it to the semi-finals, it was just a stepping stone for him to reach the final. For Chen Yingxiong, the only significance of Lyon's existence was that when everyone reviewed Chen Yingxiong's journey to win the championship after he Chen Yingxiong lifted the Europa League trophy, they would mention the opponent in the semi-finals. But that was all, and there would never be any words like "Lyon created some trouble for Liverpool with Chen Yingxiong in the semi-finals..."
Chen Yingxiong's gaze had already jumped over Lyon under his feet and landed on the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam—the venue for this season's Europa League final.