Alan Shearer names Newcastle, Arsenal & Man United stars in Premier League team of the season

Newcastle United duo Nick Pope and Kieran Trippier have been named in Alan Shearer’s Premier League Team of the Season. The pair played an instrumental part as the Magpies sealed a return to the Champions League for the first time in 20 years.

Both players helped United record the joint-best defensive record in the top-flight - level with Manchester City. Pope kept 14 clean sheets, beaten only by Manchester United’s David de Gea, while Trippier started every game on the way to conceding just 33 goals in 38 games.

Trippier won the Magpies’ Player of the Year award. Pope, meanwhile, has twice been nominated for the Premier League Save of the Season award for his stops away to Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace.

“He’s played behind a really mean defence, but when teams have got through that defence, he’s barely put a foot wrong all season,” Shearer said on Pope. For Trippier, the Magpies legend added: “He’s skippered Newcastle to an incredible season. Hardly let anyone down and gave magnificent performances week after week.”

Also earning place in Shearer’s team of the season is Man City quartet John Stones, Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland, Arsenal duo William Saliba and Martin Odegaard, plus Brighton and Hove Albion Pervis Estupinan, Man United’s Marcus Rashford and Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane.

Shearer, as already documented, named Eddie Howe as his Manager of the Season.

“For him to have taken Newcastle into the top four, and back to the Champions League, has been superb,” the former England international said. “Not only has he brought players in and improved them, but he’s also done the same with the players that were already there. What a job he’s done!”

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