Romelu Lukaku nominated for Premier League Goal of the Month award

A common complaint I have about this Goal of the Month award, or any Goal of the Given Period award, is that it tends to favor long-range strikes. A bit like the old adage about home runs in baseball, people dig the long bombs.

And so, once again, we have a number of strikes nominated for the Premier League’s Goal of the Month award for September be long range efforts. Not that they aren’t great, but they get boring after a while. We already achieved peak long-range goal with Michael Essien against Arsenal, after all.

Of course, maybe I shouldn’t complain, since Romelu Lukaku’s rocket of a shot from the top of the box against Aston Villa is certainly a strike worthy of recognition. The only thing preventing that from exiting Earth’s gravitational field was the top corner of the Aston Villa net.

But what’s this, a plot twist? It’s the other Lukaku goal against Villa, his first ever at Stamford Bridge that’s been nominated. That’s the one where he collected a long through ball from Mateo Kovacic and absolutely eradicated his former team-mate, poor Axel Tuanzebe with a cutback, before finishing between the goalkeeper’s legs. Wahey!

Meanwhile, the long bomb quota is fulfilled by Bruno Fernandes, Andros Townsend, and Naby Keita. We also have a Jesse Lingard goal that is perhaps more notable for the build-up (Pogba pass and Martial dummy), Aubameyang finishing off a counter, plus Matty Cash’s goal, which was a lovely strike after a nice run, and Jesse Lingard’s other goal, which is a mirrored version of Cash’s strike.

You can vote here for Lukaku.