Making a case for all 6 PFA Player of the Year nominees

The six men in the running for the Premier League's most illustrious individual honour were revealed Wednesday, with nary a surprise on the star-studded short list.

Related: Leicester City trio highlights PFA Player of the Year nominees

Leicester City, on the verge of a miraculous Premier League title, leads the way with Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, and N'Golo Kante all among the nominees. Indeed, the Algerian is the betting favourite to capture the hardware.

The list is rounded out by Arsenal assist king Mesut Ozil, West Ham free-kick artist extraordinaire Dimitri Payet, and Tottenham talisman Harry Kane. But who deserves to claim the prize?

Here, we run down the cases for and against each of the six.

Note: Shots, key passes, interceptions, and tackles are measured per 90 minutes.

Riyad Mahrez

Why he should win: Having played a part in nearly half of Leicester's Premier League goals this season, Mahrez is the Foxes' main source of ammunition as they narrow in on a title in previously unimaginable fashion. The Algerian was a non-league reject upon joining the club, but a phenomenal campaign in which he's left countless defenders for dead and committed triple homicide versus Aston Villa makes him the justifiable bookmakers' favourite. Arguably more than anyone else at King Power Stadium, Mahrez has revolutionised the top flight of English football. How can that go unrewarded?

Why he shouldn't: If there's one reason why Mahrez doesn't deserve the award - and this is a stretch - it's because Leicester's glory must be attributed to the sum of its parts rather than an individual. That's about it.

Jamie Vardy

Why he should win: Scoring in 11 consecutive matches beat the previous record of 10, held for 12-and-a-half years by Manchester United favourite Ruud van Nistelrooy, and captured the imagination of a nation. Formerly an ill-disciplined non-league player, Jamie Vardy is now one of England's great hopes at the age of 29. It's a story that has Hollywood scrambling.

Why he shouldn't: His goals slowed, and his previous misdemeanours mean he won't be topping some Premier League colleagues' Christmas card lists - and they vote for this award. Also, there's no denying that those movie scripts wouldn't be penned without Mahrez.

N'Golo Kante

Why he should win: Because he's just going to intercept the award anyway while it's being presented to someone else. His tackles aren't bad either, with his total of 106 topping every player over European football's top five leagues and covering more blades of grass at the King Power Stadium than its attentive groundsman John Ledwidge.

Why he shouldn't: History, for one, suggests Kante is facing enormous odds; the last defensively tinted player to claim the honour was John Terry ... 11 years ago. Attackers always win the plaudits that come in the form of shiny hardware, and, despite his enormous impact this season dominating Leicester's midfield, it will almost definitely stay that way.

Mesut Ozil

Why he should win: Arsenal's title hopes have floundered, yes, but those hopes would not have existed at all were it not for the German midfielder and his innate ability to deliver passes unforeseen to many a human eye. Though he, like his side, has slowed of late, Ozil should still usurp Thierry Henry on the single-season assist chart. His impact, of course, goes beyond just those slick passes. The creative hub of a Gunners side capable of playing the most attractive football on the continent, Ozil - still derided by the unenlightened - is having a historically impressive campaign.

Why he shouldn't: Many will argue that Ozil declined in the second half of the season, to the point where his dip in form was a key factor in the Gunners' inability to capture the crown.

Dimitri Payet

Why he should win: The Frenchman's exploits in the middle of the park have dragged West Ham United from the footballing wilderness - a recent history not befitting such a storied club - to a Champions League hopeful. His free-kicks are a delight too, somehow defying physics as they dip and swerve beyond a succession of dumbfounded shot-stoppers.

Why he shouldn't: Aside from the obvious argument that Payet will almost definitely not be able to lift his side into the Champions League, there is the more glaring fact that the Frenchman missed three months of the season with an ankle injury.

Harry Kane

Why he should win: Because consistency deserves to be rewarded. Yes, the PFA Player of the Year award is based on the exploits of a single season. However, whereas someone like Vardy or Payet must wait until next season to prove their campaigns weren't one-offs, Kane's already proved just that over the last eight months, beating his tally of 21 goals from the last Premier League season with 22 goals and counting.

Why he shouldn't: Because handing Kane the award would be an insult to Leicester's fairy tale and would illustrate that the honour is measured by goals scored and nothing else.