Twitter Fan Votes Added to Premier League Player and Manager of the Month Awards

The Premier League's official Player and Manager of the Month awards will now take into account supporters' votes on Twitter.

Per Dan Ripley for the MailOnline, a shortlist of four players and managers will be drawn up and votes in a Twitter poll will be added to the votes cast by a panel of former footballers and coaches, who previously would have decided the award-winners themselves.

In the case of the Player of the Month, every Premier League captain will also have a vote.

Here is the shortlist for August's Player of the Month:

And the same for the managers:

For Goal of the Month, supporters alone can decide the winner from eight nominees and may cast their votes here. Carling supplied a compilation of the shortlisted strikes:

As Ripley noted, the change in voting for the awards could see the Premier League's elite clubs rewarded with more winners thanks to their global fanbases.

Manchester United have more Twitter followers than any other English side with 8.68 million, followed by Arsenal with 7.96 million, Chelsea with 7.32 million and Liverpool with 6.15 million—by contrast, champions Leicester City have just 822,000.

Gunners fans in particular are notorious for being active in online polls—the first-ever Facebook Football Awards in 2015 saw Alexis Sanchez and Arsene Wenger named as the Player and Manager of the Year, respectively, though the voting in 2016 was far more diverse.