The footballing world steamrolls on, and February has seen some incredible games, results and performances across England and Europe, in particular with the return of the Champions League knockout rounds. Therefore, with all the great football going on around the leagues, the NextGoalWinner POTM awards must also continue.

This months award was possibly the closest we’ve ever decided on, however one player in particular has stood out for 1 performance in particular. Although not every performance was a hit, the game against strugglers Norwich all but sealed the deal for this award, and that player is Raheem Sterling. Anyone hitting a perfect hattrick is instantly in the conversation for POTM, and Sterling nabs the award ahead of Adams, Salah, Kane and Son, so certainly some stiff competition, but overall it has to be Sterling just based on that 90 minutes against Norwich.

If you have anything to add to our NextGoalWinner POTM decision, or disagree with our pick, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

February 9th: Manchester City 2-0 Brentford – After making a 22 minute cameo in City’s easing past Fulham in the FA Cup on the 5th, Sterling was back in the starting XI in their opening Premier League fixture of the month, beating Brentford, and Sterling was highly influential. He couldn’t get himself on the scoresheet, however he was a handful for the opposition defence, leading to him being the most fouled player on the pitch (5). With 84% pass accuracy (36/43), making 2 key passes and winning a penalty for his side, it was a shift for the team from Sterling in this fixture, and I’m certain his influence made the game appear so easy for his side.

February 12th: Norwich City 0-4 Manchester City – Sterling more than made up for his lack of a goal in the previous fixture, by netting a hattrick against struggling Norwich. With a 9.2/10 rating, it’s hard to imagine what else he could have done for his side, as he netted 3 of his sides 4 goals, and a perfect hattrick at that. His missed penalty will surely have impacted the rating, however netting the follow up meant he could add to his decent goal tally for the season. As the player of the match, he was the most fouled player (3), won the most duels (7) and had 100% shot accuracy from his 5 attempts. A truly immense performance from the attacker and ultimately the game and performance that has won him this prestigious award.

February 19th: Manchester City 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur – Following his perfect hattrick with a goal and assist in the Champions League trouncing of Sporting, he played 68 minutes of the surprise loss to Tottenham. As we will cover in the last 2 games, his form did dip back down after his impressive week prior to this fixture, and he only managed a 6.5/10 for his impact on the game, and he failed to really make an impact in the match, only managing 1 shot, no successful dribbles and only 1/5 accurate crosses. We don’t expect perfection in our NextGoalWinner POTM and this game was the exception to what we had seen prior from Sterling, but still not enough for him to lose this award for the month.

February 26th: Everton 0-1 Manchester City – Finishing up for the month, Sterling played 77 minutes of City’s close call against Lampard’s resolute Everton. He couldn’t quite get on the scoresheet and struggled to hit the form of earlier in the month. That said, he still made 23 accurate passes including 1 key pass, made 1 interception and 3 recoveries. Although not quite hitting the highs of earlier in the month, he still contributed a solid if not unspectacular performance in this big win in the race for the title.