This will start a lot of rows
There have been roughly 22,000 Premier League goals since the league was created back in 1992, but nothing stands out like a well-hit free-kick.
Data for the early years of the league is hard to come by but Opta can tell us that 33 direct free kick goals were scored in 2011-12 so even if that is averaged out over the 22 years, that is still a lot of goals to try and whittle down to a top 15.
But, prompted by Tottenham star Christian Eriksen’s recent dead-ball displays, that is what the Monday Night Football lads attempted to do this evening, selecting 15 classic efforts, from a stunning effort by Eric Cantona against Arsenal and Matt Le Tissier’s famous volley to recent strikes by the likes of Sebastian Larsson and Luis Suarez.
Analysts Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher picked their favourites and predictably plumped for former team-mates.
Neville went for Cristano Ronaldo’s physics-defying effort against Portsmouth…
…while Liverpool legend Carra chose between Gary McAllister’s long-range derby effort and John Arne Riise’s thunderbolt against Manchester United in order to rub Neville’s nose in it.
Here it is…
Those are both incredible goals but here at SportsJOE we have a soft spot for Christian Ziege’s north London derby free from the 2002/03 season.
