Top 10: Premier League goals

Alejandro Garnacho’s sublime overhead kick to open the scoring against Everton has sparked the debate around where it ranks amogst the Premier League’s all-time great goals.

From team goals to solo efforts, we rank the top 10 Premier League goals.

10 - Matt Le Tissier v Newcastle (1993)

Few players could make opposition defenders do their bidding like Matt Le Tissier. The scorer of some of the best Premier League goals, but perhaps his best came against Newcastle.

Having to flick his left heel out to retrieve the ball from behind him, Le Tissier would take a touch past one defender, flick the ball over the head of another before coolly passing the ball into the far corner.

9 - Patrick Berger v Charlton (2004)

Coming to meet the ball around 25 yards out, Patrick Berger took a touch that lifted the ball off the ground and presented him with the opportunity to score a once-in-a-lifetime goal. 

Not getting chance to even see where the keeper was, Berger lashed a volley goalwards that gave Dean Kiely no chance.

8 - Dalian Atkinson v Wimbledon (1992)

Starting well inside his own half, Dalian Atkinson would shake off the first challenge, riding the second. Still in his own half, Atkinson evaded a third defender (who he’d then beat again) and continued his mazy run towards goal.

Pausing on the edge of the area, Atkinson spotted Hans Segers off his line in the Wimbledon goal, lobbing the keeper to cap off one of the Premier League’s great solo goals.

7 - Andros Townsend v Manchester City (2018)

There was something particularly aesthetically pleasing about Andros Townsend’s goal against Manchester City, and it wasn’t just that it was a volley from 30 yards out.

A headed clearance fell perfectly into Townsend’s path, and despite attempting what looked to be little more than a controlled volley, the ball almost broke the speed of sound, flying past a helpless Ederson.

6 - Tony Yeboah v Liverpool (1995)

Is a list of the greatest Premier League goals really a list of the greatest Premier League goals if Tony Yeboah doesn’t feature? The question, of course, is which goal?

As good as his strike against Wimbledon was, it was the volley a month earlier against Liverpool that gets the nod. 

Plucking the ball out of the air, Yeboah has to readjust himself, taking a step back before unleashing a ferocious volley past David James – and you even get the added satisfaction of the ball smashing the underside of the crossbar before bouncing into the roof of the net.

5 - Alejandro Garnacho v Everton (2023)

There’s just something about overhead kicks, isn’t there? The fact your whole body has to leave the ground, the fact it’s practised so infrequently, the fact it’s not easy to actually connect properly with the ball, it’s just perfect, and Alejandro Garnacho’s is perhaps the best of them.

Peeling away into space, Garnacho had to run away from goal to get on the end of Diogo Dalot’s cross. Flinging himself through the air, the Argentinian connected perfectly, with Jordan Pickford only able to watch the ball fly into the far corner.

4 - Pajtim Kasami v Crystal Palace (2013)

On the face of it, Crystal Palace v Fulham looked like a very ordinary Monday Night Football clash, but it would produce one of the greatest strikes in Premier League history.

Marco van Basten’s volley against the USSR will forever go down as one of the game’s great goals scored by one of the game’s great players, and Kasami’s volley looked to be inspired by it.

A hopeful long ball down the right flank was met perfectly by the chest of Kasami – the touch almost as good as the finish itself – but instead of taking the ball in his stride, Kasami unleashed a volley that looped over a helpless Julian Speroni and in.

3 - Johan Elmander v Wolves (2010)

We often hear ‘if X had done that…’ when a lesser-known player pulls of a feat of apparent genius and it’s true of Johan Elmander’s goal against Wolves.

Receiving the ball with four defenders around him, Elmander takes one touch with his left foot to control, another to feint one way, then a touch with his right to turn another. Then dragging the ball with his right foot to face goal, he takes another touch with his left to bring the ball back under control, then slots home with his right.

The sheer speed of thought to attempt it is one thing; being able to pull it off is another.

2 - Dennis Bergkamp v Newcastle (2002)

“Ah, but did he mean it?” You hear that question, you know the goal being discussed.

For the sake of argument, we’ll have to assume Dennis Bergkamp did mean his touch against Newcastle that led to one of the most memorable Premier League goals.

Most people who’ve played football have stood with their back to goal at some point, receiving the ball into feet and dragged it behind them.

Nikos Dabizas presumably recognised and anticipated that very move from Bergkamp, only to see the ball had inexplicably ended up on the wrong side of him. Before he knew was going on, Bergkamp had muscled him out of the way, side-footing the ball into the net.

1 - Jack Wilshere v Norwich (2013)

Most of the so-called best goals are wonderstrikes from miles out that whistle into the top corner; but even the very best are one-off strikes that you see from time to time when a player fancies their chances. Jack Wilshere’s goal for Arsenal against Norwich will likely never be seen again. 

It wasn’t just one thunderous strikes, but a series of immaculate touches that looked like a perfectly choreographed routine that was impossible to rehearse.

Before you could even appreciate what was happening, the ball was in the back of the net.

Santi Cazorla cut in from the left, exchanging passes with Wilshere. One touch from Cazorla into Giroud, Giroud with an instinctive flick back to Wilshere, Wilshere with a flick back to Giroud, Giroud back to Wilshere, Wilshere into the back of the net.

Footballing artistry.