Conte, Hazard, Pedro, Costa all nominated for Premier League April awards

It’s highly unlikely that anyone other than Mauricio Pochettino will win the Barclays Premier League Manager of the Month award for April. Posting a perfect 6-0-0 record, the Spurs boss has engineered a late-season title push over in North London, which could see the gap closed at least temporarily to just 1 point tonight.

But it’s nice that Antonio Conte was also nominated, as were Manchester United’s José “The Invincible One” Mourinho, Leicester City’s Craig “Shakey” Shakespeare, and Hull City’s Marco “why is it always a foreign manager” Silva.

Congrats on winning it, Poche. Please go ahead and lose tonight, now that it’s May and all.

On the players side, the seven nominees for April also include a solitary Chelsea representative, Eden Hazard, who will no doubt be happy to see that Ander Herrera did not get nominated alongside him. Agüero, Bailly, Benteke, Eriksen, Son, and Vertonghen did. Chances are the award will go to one of the three Spurs players, but perhaps they’ll split the vote and get Hazard in there instead.

Last but not least, we have the Goal of the Month where we find two Chelsea nominees. There are no prizes for guessing that Pedro’s strike against Everton is there — just one of several long-range bombs from April in the Premier League. He’s joined by Diego Costa’s lovely finish and interplay with Hazard and Pedro against Southampton. If you’re wondering where Matić’s goal is, that’s not eligible since it happened in the FA Cup. And if you’re wondering where Emre Can’s goal is, that’s not eligible since it happened in May.

Congrats to all nominees, but especially all the Chelsea boys (including young Mason Mount, who was nominated for PL2 Player of the Month). Be sure to vote!