Chelsea may have “short”-listed a whopping fourteen (14!) goals for the club’s annual Goal of the Season award, but there were pretty clearly only a few efforts truly worthy of that honor. And though personally, I voted for Estêvão’s goal against Barcelona, João Pedro’s acrobatic bicycle goal against Nottingham Forest was certainly just as deserving.
JP’s goal was only late consolation in the defeat against Forest amid our miserable late-season slide, but it was also notable for ending the team’s
rather frustrating 566-minute Premier League goal drought. It was so good, it was almost worth the wait. (Almost.)
Hopefully next season we can combine spectacular goals with more spectacular (in a good way) results.
Incidentally, JP is just the second striker to win this award since its inception in 2007, joining Olivier Giroud’s scorpion kick from 2021. He’s the eighth different player to win it in the last eight years, joining Pedro Neto (last year) and Moisés Caicedo (two years ago) as previous winners still on the team. Michael Essien (twice), Ramires (twice), Oscar (twice), and Eden Hazard (three times) are the players to have won this award more than once.
