Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez have won the Barclays monthly awards for December.
Pellegrini, who collects the Premier League manager of the month award for the first time since joining City in the summer, guided his team to an unbeaten run in the month of December, recording five wins and a draw.
Wins over Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal, Fulham, Liverpool and Crystal Palace helped City move from sixth place on the table(with 22 points from 12 matches and nine points adrift of the leaders) to second place (with 41 points from 19 fixtures and within a point of league leaders Arsenal).
The 2011 champions scored 30 goals during the period, which has made them the right candidate to break Chelsea’s record seasonal haul of 103 goals achieved in the 2009/10 season.
Suarez became the first player in the Barclays Premier League history to reach double figures in a calendar month with ten goals in December.
Four of those goals came on December 4 during Liverpool’s 5-1 win over Norwich City. He followed that up with two goals each in three of his subsequent league appearances for the Reds.
His brace against Cardiff City propelled Brendan Rodgers’ side to the top of the league standing at Christmas for the first time since 2008.
