Not only are Brighton scoring more than everyone else in the Premier League, they also score better goals.
Center half Lewis Dunk claimed the Premier League Goal of the Month for September with a stunning 35-yarder against Coventry. Now, five weeks later, that has already been eclipsed.
Step forward his Seagulls team-mate Diego Gomez, who shot from the halfway line after seeing Crystal Palace goalkeeper Walter Benitez leave his line during Brighton’s emphatic 5-0 win over their rivals on Sunday.
Benitez made a quick run towards his goal and made a desperate dive but couldn’t stop the ball going just under the crossbar.
“As soon as he scored it I knew it was won. He took away the club’s goal of the season from me,” joked Brighton skipper Dunk.
“That’s the aim of the season so far, what a success,” added former Premier League striker Efan Ekoku, a member of the BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra commentary team. “(It was) superbly struck and just over the keeper’s head from the center circle.”
Gomez’s seventh-minute goal at the Amex put Brighton 2-0 up and 51 yards out, the furthest goal in the Premier League since Wayne Rooney scored from 58 yards for Everton in their 4-0 win over West Ham in November 2017.
“When I scored, I didn’t know where to run or what to do,” admitted Gomez, a 23-year-old Paraguayan midfielder. “When I got the ball, I knew the goalkeeper was a little ahead. I was very happy with the goal.”
Former Newcastle goalkeeper and Match of the Day pundit Shay Given said the goal was “reminding of David Beckham (for Manchester United against Wimbledon in 1996)” and added: “I don’t even blame Benitez, the goalkeeper.
“We always talk about sweeping goalkeepers and you have to be high for the through ball and the defense playing a high line. I think his position was good.
“You just have to take your hat off to Gomez. It’s just a brilliant, brilliant goal.”
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