There may still be 10 games and more than two months to go until the curtain falls on this season's Barclays Premier League action.
But, somewhat farcically, voting for the Players' Player of the Year award, has already begun.
Luis Suarez, who scored 31 league goals for Liverpool last term before his £75million summer move to Barcelona, currently holds the title.
Sportsmail's team of top writers give their verdict on which player they would want to follow in the Uruguay international's footsteps if they were asked to cast their vote today.
Nemanja Matic
Jose Mourinho’s current Chelsea team is perhaps the most physically imposing he has ever assembled and Matic stands out as a giant among men.
A superb reader of the game, Matic can pass the ball well, too. He would get in just about every team in Europe and that says it all.
Harry Kane
Chelsea have been the best team with immense consistency from Nemanja Matic and Eden Hazard. But no-one has made a greater individual impact than Harry Kane.
He’s transformed the mood at White Hart Lane with his energy and desire, deflected attention from the big-money flops and offered hope for the future as a flag-bearer for the youth system. Not to mention 26 goals, and an anticipated England call-up.
He must finish the season and kick on, but Kane seems capable of that. Each time he seems about to fade, he hits back.
Who deserves to be voted Player of the Year today? Here’s my answer to the question: No-one. It’s too early.
It’s a nonsense that the players have to vote so soon and shows why the Footballer of the Year award, voted by members of the Football Writers’ Association, has more credibility. I'll save my vote until then, thank you.
But among the contenders: John Terry, Harry Kane, Philippe Coutinho, Alexis Sanchez, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, Danny Ings, David de Gea and Charlie Austin. Voting now is like deciding a Wimbledon champion before the quarter-finals are played.
I want to see how they fare at the business end of the season.
Eden Hazard
It's close between Hazard and Sergio Aguero but the brilliant Belgian shades it thanks to his remarkable injury-free record. Already this season Hazard has pulled on a Chelsea shirt 41 times and has again been superb.
Aguero's susceptibility to various issues stops him from becoming Manchester City's first winner of the award.
Harry Kane
He deserves it for the surprise element more than anything else - nobody could have predicted his impact at Tottenham this season. He lives for the game, thriving on the responsibility of scoring goals for the club and enjoying his relationship with Spurs supporters. Next week he will be rewarded with a call into the England squad.
Nemanja Matic
I reserve the right to change my mind in the next few weeks, as Eden Hazard and Alexis Sanchez have both been superb. Hazard could become one of the game’s greats.
But I’m close to settling on Matic, because his position is often under-acknowledged and because he has provided balance to a Chelsea team that had collected flair players while eschewing midfielders who can defend.
He is a throwback to Patrick Vieira: the aggression, the superb distribution, the instinctive reading of the game and, most of all, those longs legs extending to whip the ball away from an attacking player who thinks he is clear on goal.
Because he is so good defensively, his passing and creativity in forward areas are often overlooked. I’m expecting the more glamorous players to win the awards but I don’t think any player contributes more to their respective teams than Matic.
Harry Kane
There is nothing dark about the art of Kane and a victory for the Spurs striker would be a victory for football and all of the reasons why we should love the game.
There are no elbows, no spitting, no intimidating referees - he scores goals for his boyhood club and does so with a smile on his face. His brilliant enthusiasm aside, Kane is a worthy winner on footballing merit alone and has consistently been the division's best striker this season.
His goals have invariably been match-winning and his breakthrough campaign should be crowned with a clean sweep of the annual awards.
David De Gea
He almost certainly won't win it but David De Gea deserves some representation for Player of the Year based purely on the fact he has single-handedly and often stunningly rescued Manchester United and kept them in the hunt for a top-four finish.
Branislav Ivanvoic
This is one of the toughest to call because the obvious stand-out performers - Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Sergio Aguero - have missed games or been inconsistent. So in a very even field I'd vote for Branislav Ivanovic because he's typified best why Chelsea will be champions
Eden Hazard
Chelsea aren’t winning too many friends at the moment but it does look like they will win a Premier League and Capital One Cup double, and no-one will have contributed more than last season’s PFA Young Player of the Year.
A supremely gifted footballer, Hazard deserves the main award this season ahead of Sanchez, Costa, Coutinho and Kane.
David De Gea
Nobody goes to football matches hoping for clean sheets but the United goalkeeper has produced saves of wonder this season, genuinely entertaining and worthy of repeated replays as much as any goal. This award should go to a player who has impacted his team significantly, clearly lifting them higher. So far, De Gea has done that.
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