Fink Tank Player of the Year

The Fink Tank analyse for The Times displays every year the importance of the players for their sides.

The experts have taken every on-field action and tracked the relationship between these actions and the points that each team obtain.

Then they have simulated the Barclays Premier League campaign again and again, each time removing a player and seeing the difference to the outcome without them.

The final result is a table of the number of points added by each player compared with an average player in the same position playing for an average team.

"Every award pleasant and this one particularly because it is based on fact. I consider it really prestigous as well as it is the confirmation that I did saves important for my team in this season," claimed Petr.

Big Pete has finished near the top of the Fink Tank table every year but has not reached the first position till now. Just behind Petr is his teammate Frank Lampard, on the third position was Fulham's Mark Schwarzer.

Schwarzer, Heurelho Gomes, Tim Howard and Edwin van der Sar are behind the Czech International in the goalkeepers' rankings.