Is there a more delicate phenomenon in football than the chipped goal? Here are our favourites over the years in the Premier League…
5. Ritchie Humphreys – SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY vs Leicester City, 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8mF64Bm9A
Ritchie Humphreys exploded onto the scene at the start of the 1996/97 season, helping to fire Wednesday to an unexpected early lead of the Premier League. Here, at just 18, Humphreys races through the midfield before punishing Leicester’s defenders for backing off with a deft finish over Kasey Keller from 25 yards. Although the season was still young at that point, Humphreys had already scored another belter, smashing in a volley against Aston Villa on the opening day of the season. Although his career hasn’t lived up to the promise of those spectacular goals, Humphreys has spent ten years at Hartlepool United, and in February he broke their appearance record with 473 games.
4. Robert Pirès - ARSENAL vs Southampton, 2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9IIVatm6rY
With Southampton secure in mid-table and Arsenal out of the running for the league title, this game was essentially a dead rubber ahead of the two sides’ clash in the FA Cup final ten days later. The game included a hat-trick on début from a young Jermaine Pennant, but the stand-out moment in a 6-1 home win was this outstanding piece of skill by the wily Robert Pirès. Paul Jones in the Southampton goal was left helpless as the Frenchman’s audacious effort arced beautifully beyond him and under the crossbar. Pirès would go on to score a considerably scrappier effort to settle the final at the Millennium Stadium.
3. Matthew Le Tissier – SOUTHAMPTON vs Manchester United, 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1IF3zImlY
Catching a goalkeeper out of position and measuring a shot to evade him and drop below the bar is one thing; when that goalkeeper is Peter Schmeichel and you’ve had to weave through two Manchester United challenges outside the box to even attempt it, it’s something a little bit special. Nobody would expect any less of Matthew Le Tissier, though, a player who doggedly defied Premier League protocol with Southampton for years until his retirement in 2002. Never the most mobile of players, Le Tissier was a master of the unexpected, and Saints’ thrashing of the defending champions was certainly that. Le Tissier’s goal was one of nine that day, with Southampton running out 6-3 winners. It was Schmeichel’s second such humiliation in a matter of days…
2. Philippe Albert – NEWCASTLE UNITED vs Manchester United, 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCNSS2o9Gyg
Newcastle’s tag of ‘The Entertainers’ throughout the Keegan years was a deserved one, and no-one summed up that philosophy more than their libero central defender Philippe Albert. The Belgian, signed after the 1994 World Cup, stood an imposing 6’3″, but that’s about as far as he went in terms of following defensive convention. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be spotted abandoning the back four for more exciting areas of the pitch, and he frequently took to a playmaking role, as the chances flowed at each end. Undoubtedly his finest moment came on that famous night at St. James’s Park when Newcastle dismantled Manchester United in an emphatic 5-0 win, just one week before Schmeichel et al travelled to the Dell. A pre-knighthood Alex Ferguson described the result as a ‘blip’ and, despite the giggles, that proved to be the case as United doggedly chipped away at Newcastle’s twelve-point lead before securing the title on the final day. Albert’s goal remains the iconic moment of that remarkable season, however, an utterly glorious lob which put the cherry on the icing on Newcastle’s cake.
1. Eric Cantona – MANCHESTER UNITED vs Sunderland, 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmDTh-hlL8A
If Albert’s chip was iconic of a season, Eric Cantona’s effort against Sunderland summed up the man. Haughty, presumptuous, arrogant and completely brilliant, United’s fifth in a 5-0 win was the goal that sealed the legend. Picking the ball up on the halfway line, Cantona bewitched two Sunderland midfielders, surged forward, exchanged passes with Brian McClair before delivering an unforgettable finish via the post. The ensuing seconds are at least as memorable as the goal; Cantona unashamedly waiting for the plaudits, a picture of hubristic pride. At the end of the season (which brought his fifth league title in six seasons) he retired, aged 30. Having embarked on an acting career, Cantona said “there were moments I would be daydreaming. I would imagine scenes, even if there wasn’t a camera around. In my head, I was acting.” That celebration against Sunderland was positively Oscar-winning.
Cantona 'celebrates'
