Mesut Ozil, Lucas Joao lead PFA Fans' Player of the Month awards for November

By Stephen Mills

Wednesday 9 December 2015 14:16, UK

Mesut Ozil, Lucas Joao, Jacob Murphy and Matt Taylor have been named as the PFA Fans' Players of the Month for November.

Arsenal midfielder Ozil, who has twice as many assists as any player in the top flight this season, claimed the Premier League award ahead of Manchester United defender Chris Smalling and Leicester striker Jamie Vardy.

The Championship award goes to Sheffield Wednesday forward Joao, who scored three goals in four games in November, and saw off competition from Derby's Andreas Weimann and Leeds' Alex Mowatt.

In League One, Coventry's Jacob Murphy - who is on loan from Norwich - topped the poll ahead of Port Vale's Ajay Leitch-Smith and Jermaine Anderson of Peterborough United.

And the League Two winner was Matt Taylor of Bristol Rovers who claimed more votes than Hartlepool's Jake Gray and Ryan Harley of Exeter.

Every month, throughout the English football season, fans will have the opportunity to vote on skysports.com for who they think has been the best player in the Barclays Premier League, Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One and Sky Bet League Two, after Sky Sports teamed up with the PFA to be the digital platform for the Awards.

Before the vote opens each month, an expert panel produce a shortlist of contenders. Fans are then able to vote for the player they think deserves the award.

The panel includes Sky Sports football pundits Paul Merson, Ian Holloway and Peter Beagrie.

That trio are then joined by Mike Riley, general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials, and Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, as well as the winning fan from each month.

The winning fans who will take their places on next month's shortlisting panel and make the awards to players will be announced in due course.