The awards season kicks off tonight when Robin van Persie will surely be named Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers’ Association.
And he must be long odds-on to follow that up by collecting the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year accolade.
It is pretty much, as they say, a no-brainer.
Less clear-cut will be the voting for the managerial gongs.
A 40-strong panel of experts will decide the Barclays Manager of the Season, while managers themselves anoint the LMA Manager of the Year.
Both have been known to come up with the odd quirky choice.
In 2010, Carlo Ancelotti – in his debut season in English football – won Chelsea’s first Double.
The Premier League sponsors’ award that season went to Harry Redknapp, for finishing fourth, presumably.
The League Managers’ Association plumped for Roy Hodgson for, I assume, getting Fulham to the final of the Europa League (which they lost) rather than for finishing 12th.
And I’m sure Gerard Houllier is unlikely to forget the moment the LMA bestowed the honour on George Burley – who had guided Ipswich to fifth place – in 2001 while the Frenchman was celebrating a League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup treble with Liverpool. Not to mention a third place finish.
This time around, the informed talk is that it will be a three-way battle for individual honours. Alan Pardew, Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert.
All have done creditable jobs.
Should Pardew manage to secure a Champions League berth, he will certainly be worthy of consideration.
Newcastle’s final points tally could well exceed the 68 it took to secure Arsenal fourth place last season. But while Rodgers and Lambert have enthralled us with their approach and attitude, their teams look likely to finish in similar positions to a couple of promoted clubs last season.
Before yesterday’s fixtures, Norwich and Swansea sat 11th and 12th – the same positions occupied by West Brom and Newcastle at the end of 2010-11.
Because of our inflated opinion of its standard, sometimes we overestimate the challenge faced by newcomers to the Premier League.
The challenge faced by Sir Alex Ferguson this season, however, has been a familiar one – to see off heavy-spending pretenders.
And if he manages to do that, it will be one of his most remarkable achievements.
Not his finest, of course. The Treble in 1999 will stay unsurpassed.
But consider how unfavourably this United compares with other vintages.
In the title-winning 2008-09 season, Ferguson had Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and a Dimitar Berbatov in his prime.
To go with Rooney this season, he has an inconsistent Javier Hernandez, a raw Danny Welbeck and a fast-fading Berbatov. In midfield, he was largely denied the services of Darren Fletcher, the promise of Tom Cleverley and the combativeness of Anderson.
Nani and Antonio Valencia have provided a threat but also missed 20 games between them, while captain Nemanja Vidic has not played since December 7.
Ferguson has also had to manage a goalie spooked for a swathe of games at the start of the season and has not had a regular right-back.
One correspondent remarked to me earlier in the season that United were fighting for the title with their Carling Cup team. And he was not far wrong. Their embarrassment in Europe underlined that.
Yet the truly remarkable thing is that, at the relatively grand age of 70, Sir Alex’s appetite for the battle seems healthier than ever.
And you sense it has only been whetted even further by the prospect of bringing a 20th title to Old Trafford with one of his most undistinguished squads.
If he does just that, there really is only one Manager of the Season.
