In honour of Matt Lowton’s stupendous volley to help Villa towards a pivotal victory over Stoke this weekend, these are the top 5 Premier League volleys from outside the box.
5 – Alan Shearer vs Everton
This is the one Shearer describes as his best ever goal, a combination of technique and timing that also happened right in front the vociferous Gallowgate End support at St James’ Park. He couldn’t have scripted it better. This is ‘only’ at 5 because the ball drops right in to his path so he ‘only’ has to put his foot through the ball compared to the others, but he made a spectacular job of doing so. A screamer.
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4 – Wayne Rooney vs Newcastle
This is Rooney at his absolute best. The ball drops out of the sky and Rooney times his run on to the ball perfectly and makes the sweetest connection. The ball scorches in to the top corner and keeper Shay Given has absolutely no sniff of stopping it. Like Shearer’s, it happened right in front of the most vocal end of the ground.
3 – Tony Yeboah vs Liverpool
Yeboah smashes this ball. He crushes it. Yeboah came to England in a whirlwind of spectacular goals, most of which involved him annihilating the ball, and this is the best example. The 5 to 3 is like a gradual progression in difficulty. This time, added to Rooney’s movement, is the fact that the ball drops in too close to his body so he has to readjust his feet with the ball in the air and then rockets the ball in. There’s always something particularly aesthetically pleasing about a ball kissing the bar on the way in.
2 – Paul Scholes vs Bradford
No one but Beckham and Scholes can see that this is even possible. This ranks above the previous three because of the length the ball traveled to reach him and the precision with which it was delivered which was then combined with Scholes being in motion and connecting sweetly. The pass from Beckham is pretty, which makes the contrast with the violence of the connection Scholes made even more striking.
1 – Robin van Persie vs Charlton
Wow! Almost the only word to describe this. It combines all of the best bits of the above goals and then ups the difficulty. The pass to him is excellent, how Eboue even sees him is surprising enough but then he drops it right on him. Van Persie strikes the ball on the move at high speed but the volley he has to execute is incredibly difficult. With the ball up by his hip he manages to get over the ball, on the move at speed, and batters the ball in to the top corner. Ridiculously good.
