May 23 (Reuters) - Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes was named the Premier League player of the season on Saturday after guiding his club to third place in the standings while equalling the league's assists record with a game to spare.
Fernandes tied the league record of 20 assists jointly held by former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry and ex-Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne.
The Portugal international also scored eight goals as United secured a third-place finish to qualify for the Champions League.
The 31-year-old was nominated alongside Arsenal's title-winning trio of Gabriel, David Raya and Declan Rice, Manchester City duo Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo, Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White and Brentford striker Igor Thiago.
Fernandes emerged as the Premier League's best playmaker this season when he created a league-high 132 chances. The next best player was Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai, who created 89 chances.
Fernandes was named the Football Writers' Association men's player of the year earlier this month while he also picked up the club's Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year honour for the fifth time.
He has the opportunity to make the Premier League assists record his own on Sunday when United travel to Brighton & Hove Albion for the final game of the season.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Clare Fallon)
