Andy Carroll clinches Premier League Goal of the Month award to much debate

10 February 2017 01:24

Andy Carroll's scissor kick has won the Premier League Goal of the Month award - and sparked a heated debate after beating Olivier Giroud's 'scorpion' kick.

The Premier League on Friday announced that Carroll's acrobatic strike for West Ham in their 3-0 win over Crystal Palace was the best goal in January.

But debate immediately raged on social media with many people - notably Arsenal fans - claiming Giroud's clever back-flick with his heel against the same opposition should have won the award.

Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored with the same technique as Giroud a week earlier - although replays showed he was offside - and his was named Goal of the Month for December.

But Hammers manager Slaven Bilic is in no doubt about which goal was the best.

"Andy's was a perfect goal," he said.

"A few of those scissor kicks you think 'could the keeper have saved it?' or 'that was lucky because he hit it with the shin pad', or the ball went in the middle of the goal or bounced in front of the keeper.

"This was like it was for a comic book - when you have a page for a great scissor-kick goal you would have it go in a corner and that was exactly what he did.

"Okay, I am not objective but for me this was a better one because those (scorpion) goals that they scored, t hey were magnificent, but they were a little bit lucky.

"They had nothing to lose, the ball was there and they thought 'okay, let's try it' and suddenly they are celebrating.

"Andy's was planned from the moment the cross came in."

Carroll, who has scored four goals in his last four appearances, admitted the spectacular strike was the best of his career.

He told West Ham's website: "I'm delighted to have won the Goal of the Month competition, especially given how good some of the other goals were.

"As soon as I hit it I knew it was in, I got a good connection and knew it would hit the back of the net. It's definitely the best goal I've ever scored, one I'm very proud of.

"I enjoy every goal I score, but that one was certainly a little bit more special - I don't think I'll ever get bored of watching that one back."

Source: PA