One might think that since this week produced a fewer number of total goals, the quality of the goals would have dipped as well. One would be mistaken. This week produced twenty-eight goals over the ten matches played. Even so, this was my toughest top five to compile yet this season. The format is similar to the Week #4 list, but no hat tricks this week, and no award for ‘quick thinking’. I have a top five, a few honorable mentions, as well as a team goal of the week. Without any further ado, let’s get it started.
Honorable Mentions:
The honorable mentions fall to Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United. Their side found a handful of late goals on Saturday as they secured victory 4-1. Wan-Bissaka connected with Marcus Rashford for some easy give and go football to get a pass to his feet in the box which he smashed home near post to beat the keeper. Bruno also found himself linking with Rashford for combination play inside the box. Rashford did a heavy load of the work, hitting Fernandes on an overlap, where he took the pass first time to slot it far post into the top corner. Scintillating football late for the Red Devils.
#5: Harry Kane
Harry Kane has been the catalyst for Tottenham’s offense so far this season. Through five games he has five goals and seven assists. Essentially he is averaging a goal/game and 1.4/assists per game. Absolutely remarkable stuff from the England star. This weekend was no different. He was involved in every goal for the Spurs on Sunday, and scored the wonder strike in the 8th minute of the match.
#4 Timo Werner
So Werner scored the first two Premier League goals of his career within fifteen minutes of each other on Saturday. Both goals were incredible and show his potential is sky high. I put them both onto the list rather than just one. The first goal he drops back into the midfield to receive a pass from fullback Ben Chilwell. Knowing that the defender was right on him, he let the pass run through and in behind. He finally picks the ball up in the box where the work was not done. He chopped back to his right to beat the first man, then took two more touches before firing upon a helpless keeper. Dirty, dirty.
The second goal starts with Jorginho spotting that Werner has a centre back isolated and plays it long. Timo gets in front of the defender and shields him from the dropping ball. He wins the ball on a heavy touch forward, bringing the keeper off his line. As the ball falls, he flicks it back up over the unsuspecting keeper, then heads it home. Chelsea are absolutely loving life with their shiny new German attackers.
#3 Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian King of Liverpool is no stranger to scoring incredible goals, and making it look relatively easy. That is precisely what happened at Goodison Park Saturday morning. Midfielder Jordan Henderson whipped in a cross for a back post run being made by Roberto Firmino. However the cross was stopped well short by Yerry Mina. Unfortunately for him Salah was right there. Salah hit the deflected cross first time on a sort of half volley to beat Jordan Pickford. Watch this goal over and over, and it appears just so simplistic for Salah. But I guarantee, this was no easy feet. Helluva goal by Mo.
#2 Ross Barkley
#2 and #1 on the list are both late match, result guaranteeing, rocket shots. At number 2 is former Chelsea man Ross Barkley. Barkley picks up a pass from 15 yards inside the half line, takes two touches, and decides to win the match for Villa himself. It turned to be a superb decision. His shot from almost 30 yards out easily beat the keeper and propelled Villa to a huge win of Leicester. Villa to this point are the big surprise story in the EPL, sitting at second in the table with four wins in four games.
#1 Manuel Lanzini
I was lucky enough to see this absolute piss missile live on Sunday afternoon. I was giddy with excitement as Lanzini and West Ham were able to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the last ten minutes or so of the match. This screamer capped off the comeback in dramatic fashion.
Team Goal of the Week
Kai Havertz – Goal Scorer
Timo Werner – Assist
Christian Pulisic – Pass to assist
This is the sort of goal Chelsea fans had been anticipating since the signings of Havertz and Werner this summer. Simple passing play and spacial awareness between the three make for beautiful attacking football. Simplicity really is king in the Beautiful Game.
It’s also worth noting that the Bruno Fernandes goal could have easily been TGOTW, but I desperately wanted to include my beloved prince CP10 into the list any way that I possibly could.
Alright that’s it for today. As of right now the second slate of Wednesday matches in the Champions League is set to kick off, so here is a list of fixtures for next week in the European competition.
Footy Foster 