chelsea

Chelsea fans who were scared Juan Mata could be sold can now start to feel a bit silly but relieved at the same time. Juan Mata will be one of the most important chelsea players for years to come, no doubt!

Juan Mata is one of the best players in Europe at the moment. He was undoubtedly one of the best performers in Europe last season. Juan Mata's dazzling, consistent and productive displays for Chelsea was rewarded with his inclusion in the Professional Footballers' Association's team of the year; he was also Chelsea's player of the year for the second consecutive season and won Chelsea's players' player of the year award too.

Many fans argued that Mata deserved more recognition for his consistency in a season where Tottenham's Gareth Bale scooped all major awards in England despite being quiet for most part of the start of the season before springing to life around February.

Juan Mata has again been overlooked for the European Player of The Year award for 2013. The names on the nominees' list for the European Player of the Year award are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Robin Van Persie, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Franck Ribery, Robert Lewandowski, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben and Thomas Muller.

It's difficult to argue that any of the players nominated for the  European best footballer award shouldn't be on the list as they were all fantastic last season. Juan Mata wasn't even on the 26-man initial list (Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic made the list).

The biggest individual accolade any footballer can win, The FIFA Ballon d'Or is still up for grabs. Lionel Messi as usual is considered favourite to win the highly coveted award and players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Arjen Robben have been tipped by the media too. Nobody has mentioned Chelsea's little magician, Juan Mata.

	GAMES STARTED	SUB APPS	GOALS	ASSISTS	SHOTS ON GOAL	AVG. PASSES	KEY PASSES	PASS SUCCESS (%)	CROSSES
JUAN MATA	55	9	20	28	49	49.8	2.86	85.29	1.48
EDEN HAZARD	52	14	14	20	48	42.7	2	83.9	0.6
GARETH BALE	45	0	26	10	92	34.6	2.3	78.4	2
SANTI CAZORLA	47	2	12	13	49	63.13	2.3	86.48	1.2
ANDRES INIESTA	40	8	6	18	20	77.6	1.5	90.9	0.1