Which players outside the top 6 sides could crack the TOTY?
When former Everton striker Romelu Lukaku was named to the PFA Premier League Team of the Year in April, the Belgian international was the only player among the 11 honoured whose team did not finish in the top six.
While not an impossible task, the league's best XI tends to favour players from the division's top clubs. Like Lukaku, West Ham dead-ball dynamo Dimitri Payet was the sole owner of the distinction the year prior, as was Southampton's Ryan Bertrand the term before.
One thing Lukaku, Payet, and Bertrand have in common is that their sides all finished seventh in those campaigns, further highlighting that honourees aren't exactly plucked from lower-half sides flirting with relegation.
Considering that fact - and assuming the top six will be Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, and Liverpool in some order - here's a look at five players who could conquer convention to nab an unlikely spot in the 2017-18 Team of the Year:
Michail Antonio (West Ham)
When West Ham took citizen non grata Joe Hart on loan, it effectively snuffed out Michail Antonio's chances of playing in net this season at the London Stadium.
All jokes aside, Antonio is the Premier League's most versatile player, having served on both wings, up top, as an attacking mid, and at right-back last season for Slaven Bilic in 29 appearances. From non-league to top-flight stardom, it's been a deserved rise for a player who led West Ham in goal involvement last season (nine) and added a trio of assists. There's no reason to think Antonio's ascension will slow this campaign.
Because of his versatility, Antonio could play a part in end-of-season plaudits, especially if he continues being the most important player on a side that should harbour realistic continental ambitions.
Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)
When assessing a shot-stopper's worth, statistics mean zilch if you've spent a season playing behind sluggish Wes Morgan and yellow-card savant Robert Huth.
Numerical comparisons between Schmeichel and the likes of David De Gea and Thibaut Courtois are pointless because a netminder's metrics are only as good as the players in front of him. That said, the addition of Harry Maguire from Hull City should help Schmeichel's cause, and at 30, the Dane is entering a 'keeper's prime.
With elite reflexes and a penchant for stopping short-range attempts, Schmeichel is one of the Premier League's most proficient netminders, and should Real Madrid make a last-ditch effort to sign either of its reported targets, De Gea and Courtois, a stellar season from the Foxes star could see him nab a TOTY spot.
Idrissa Gueye (Everton)
N'Golo Kante joined exclusive company by winning consecutive Premier League titles with two different clubs, and as a result, the timid French ball-stopper has been named to the PFA team two years running.
Kante deservedly won individual plaudits for his style of play, but all the while Toffees defensive mid Idrissa Gueye's exploits went largely unnoticed. Gueye saved Everton's blushes on numerous occasions with robust challenges, and while statistics only tell half the story in football, a comparison of numbers between him and Kante shows the two are nearly identical.
Gueye, 27, played two fewer matches than Kante's 35 last season, yet the Senegalese international won 19 more tackles (103-82), blocked 10 shots to his counterpart's four, created three more chances in the attacking half, and made more clearances and key passes than his peer.
Ryan Bertrand (Southampton)
Of the 11 names featured in the 2016-17 Team of the Year, none stood out more than Tottenham left-back Danny Rose.
Because of injuries, Rose made just 18 league appearances, and none since the last day of January. Just now returning to first-team duties, the distinction is Rose's to lose, though Southampton left-back Ryan Bertrand would be happy to take it.
Bertrand, 27, is no stranger to the PFA Team of the Year, and considering the lack of depth at his position of choice in England's top flight, the 14-time capped Three Lions defender could nab the nod due to his cocktail of measured defending and surges ahead to join the attack. If Bertrand can avoid the niggles that saw him miss 10 matches last season, he could return to the PFA team after a two-year absence.
Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
Neymar. Lionel Messi. Eden Hazard. Wilfried Zaha. If Crystal Palace winger Zaha's name appears like an outlier alongside this world-class trio, it shouldn't.
Since 2015-16, Zaha's completed take-ons (272) rank second only to Neymar (311) and ahead of Messi (243) and Hazard' (232), exhibiting that the Ivorian international is unafraid to take matters into his own hands - to the dismay of full-backs league-wide.
Zaha, 24, led the Eagles in assists last season with nine, the sixth-highest total in the Premier League, and his seven goals were second only to Christian Benteke's 15, suggesting the Manchester United outcast is Palace's most important player. If last season was Zaha's breakthrough, this one could be when the deft dribbler cements his status as one of the league's best wingers.