Van Persie’s Villa strike will, but shouldn’t get goal of season
Published:Robin van Persie’s second goal in his hat-trick against Aston Villa is tough to oppose in the goal of the season stakes at 4/5, but there are clear reasons why it should be beaten to the accolade.
The fact that it is most recent and therefore arguably more memorable are reasons it is sure to be a popular vote, while it also arrived in the game that confirmed Manchester United as Premier League champions, which gives it additional prestige.
However, being honest, his goal was not dissimilar to that he netted for Arsenal in December 2011 in a 1-0 win over Everton and that wasn’t considered good enough to be named goal of the season.
Granted, the ball may have travelled further and dropped from a greater height this time, but his Everton strike was from a far narrower angle and he had far less of a bottom corner to aim at.
It appears to be a three-man race for the award, with the other nominees looking to be Gareth Bale and Matt Lowton.
If Tottenham do finish in the top four this season, Bale’s 89th minute winner at West Ham could be a leading reason, hitting a virtually still ball from the best part of 35 yards into the top corner.
This goal is 11/4.
But a midfielder has not won the goal of the season award for a Premier League strike since Dietmar Hamann for Liverpool in 2004.
The good news for Lowton is that a defender has won the goal of the season award in two of the last four years and both Glen Johnson for Portsmouth and Wigan’s Maynor Figueroa were at clubs loitering around the relegation places.
It is 5/1 that Lowton’s volley against Stoke is the goal of the season.
An interesting trend is that four of the last five winners were goals scored in February or earlier of their respective season.
This bodes well for Theo Walcott at 33/1 for his dribble from the left touchline against Newcastle, although it is clean strikes, rather than mazy dribbles or fine team goals, that have a tendency of being named goal of the season.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
