Bollocks to set-pieces, here are the five best open play Premier League goals of the season | OneFootball

Long throws and set-pieces have become the trendy talk of this Premier League season but who among us can claim to have fallen in love with the game because of those?

Forget Arsenal’s corners or Brentford’s catapults from the touchline, we want volleys and flicks that jewellery thieves would admire on their way through the Louvre.

So with apologies to Dan Burn and Micky van de Ven whose efforts came in Europe, here are the five best open-play goals of the Premier League season so far to remind us all of why we love this game.

5) Lucas Paqueta (for West Ham v Chelsea)

There is something quite poetic about a great goal that comes as part of a losing effort and Lucas Paqueta certainly produced one of those when West Ham hosted Chelsea.

Just six minutes into the all-London clash, Paqueta received the ball just into Chelsea’s half and after pressing up the field and realising there were no good passing options, he went for the ‘f**k it’ approach and rifled one into the top corner.

Could Robert Sanchez have done better? Probably, but it was a glorious hit and just about the only good thing that happened for West Ham fans that night.

4) Nick Woltemade (for Newcastle United v Brighton)

Nick Woltemade became the human embodiment of ‘good feet for a big man’ when he backheel-flicked a ball into the Brighton net in October.

Around the penalty spot, the ball came to him and with two defenders either side, the 6′ 6″ German managed to not only readjust his body in time but generate enough power on the flick to get it past Bart Verbruggen. Lovely stuff.

3) Mohamed Salah (for Liverpool v Brentford)

Considering the season he is having, it can be easy to forget that Salah is actually quite good at football.

After four games without a goal in the league, Salah relied on pure instinct with his strike against Brentford.

With Liverpool 3-1 down at the time, Dominik Szoboszlai won the ball back high up the pitch but his cross was a little too high for Salah to hit first time.

Instead, the Egyptian took it down with his left foot almost level with his head before shifting his weight and striking it top bins with his ‘weaker’ right.

Liverpool ended up losing but in the YouTube video that will one day be made of Salah’s best goals, this is worth an entry.

2) Richarlison (for Tottenham v Burnley)

There was a time this season when it looked as if Richarlison wasn’t going to be an incredibly inconsistent striker and even if that didn’t prove to be the case, at least we got a good goal out of it.

After new signing Mohamed Kudus had beat his man, the cross came in and was slightly behind Richarlison, but no matter: the Brazilian twisted his body to get his right foot up to the ball and made sweet contact with it.

Being caught at your near post is never a great look but we will give Martin Dubravka a pass because of the pace of the acrobatic shot.

1) Martin Zubimendi (for Arsenal v Nottingham Forest)

In the many years Arsenal spent scouting Zubimendi, potential for scoring outside-of-the-box bangers was perhaps not high on the list of skills they were looking for.

While he has a claim to be one of the signings of the season due to the way he controls the game, he showed against Ange Postecoglou’s Nottingham Forest that he is not averse to rifling one in from range either.

And while it did come from an Arsenal corner (yes, we know you pedants), it is very much a second phase of play and gets a pass from us.

With the corner headed clear, Zubimendi sent it right back where it came from and keeper Matz Sels could only get fingertips on it before it found the net.

Does it lose marks for a slight deflection? Yes, but it is still the sweetest struck volley of the season so far.