Eden Hazard aiming to add senior award as PFA name shortlist

Diego Costa, Philippe Coutinho, David De Gea, Eden Hazard, Harry Kane and Alexis Sánchez are the six players nominated for this year's English Professional Footballers' Association's Players' Player of the Year award.

Coutinho, De Gea, Hazard and Kane are also on the shortlist for the Young Player of the Year award, where they are joined by Thibaut Courtois and Raheem Sterling.

Hazard is the only nominee from last year to make the shortlist for the senior award, which was won by Luis Suárez, while the Chelsea forward won the youth award.

Chelsea’s charge towards the title also owes much to the form of Hazard, who Jose Mourinho last week declared “by far the best player” in the league.

The Belgian winger, who won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award last year, has managed 12 goals and nine assists in the current campaign.

Kane’s nomination caps a superb breakthrough season for the 21-year-old, who has scored 30 goals in all competitions for Spurs including a first Premier League hat-trick against Leicester last month.

The England forward is currently the Premier League’s joint top scorer with Costa, who has enjoyed an excellent first season after moving to Chelsea from Atletico Madrid last summer.

The 26-year-old found the net seven times in his first four matches and, despite suffering from a recurring hamstring problem, has 20 goals in 35 appearances for the Blues, who are seven points clear at the top of the table.

Sánchez has lived up to high expectations after Arsenal paid around £35 million to sign him last summer.

The talented Chilean has notched 14 goals and eight assists in his debut season in England, helping the Gunners to second in the table.

Fellow South American midfielder Coutinho is also nominated after a sparkling campaign for Liverpool while De Gea completes the list, having been rewarded for some superb performances in goal for Manchester United.