Declan Rice was voted Arsenal’s Player of the Season in 2024/25.
The Englishman had a terrific campaign in the middle of the park for the Gunners and barely had a bad game all season.
52 per cent of all the votes from Arsenal fans went Rice’s way, and the midfielder lifted the award after just his second year at the club.
We have no qualms about Rice winning the award — he deserves all the praise in the world for the incredible campaign he had.
But, some new information has come to light, and that has made us feel that another Arsenal player should’ve received the award.
Jurrien Timber should’ve won the Arsenal Player of the Season award — here’s why
As we told you above, 52% of the votes went to Declan Rice in the Arsenal Player of the Season poll.
Bukayo Saka came second despite missing three months of action, while David Raya received the third-most votes.
All three players are brilliant, but we feel many Arsenal fans made a mistake not voting for Jurrien Timber to be named the Player of the Season.
The Dutchman Timber, who was signed in a £38.5 million deal, was absolutely incredible all campaign, and the fact that he was so good right after spending nearly a whole season on the sidelines due to an ACL tear makes it all the more impressive.
Now, a new revelation has emerged — Timber has revealed that he played through immense pain on multiple occasions because his manager needed him to.
“It hurt so much. The manager thinks: ‘Jur has had a scan, it can’t get worse, make sure you’re ready’, but he doesn’t see how much pain I’m in,” he said.
Playing through so much pain made things worse for Timber, who had to undergo surgery in May to avoid further damage.
That shows how much of a warrior Timber is, which is why we think he deserved the Player of the Season award ahead of everyone else.
READ MORE: Jurrien Timber injury recovery update after undergoing surgery at Arsenal
Is Mikel Arteta to blame for overburdening Jurrien Timber at Arsenal?
If you had asked Mikel Arteta at the start of the season if he planned to use Timber as much as he ended up doing, the answer would’ve been a big no.
Arsenal, on paper, were well-stocked at right full-back. Aside from Timber, the Gunners manager had Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu in his squad.
But, the former Brighton man was sidelined with a big injury himself and struggled for fitness all campaign, while Tomiyasu played just a few minutes throughout the season.
Arteta still used Thomas Partey at right-back at times, but apart from that, the Spaniard had no choice but to push Timber as much as he did.
We hope that White will be available throughout the whole of the next campaign and will share minutes with Timber at right-back.
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