The headed goal is an artform and is not an easy technique to master. Players must anticipate the cross, jump at the right time and position their head at the right angle to guide the ball into the back of the net.
In the modern age of football we are seeing significantly less goals scored via headers. As Mail Sport’s Matt Barlow reports, 265 goals were scored by headers in the Premier League’s opening season. But that figure has now dropped by over a hundred in the last campaign.
Clubs are chosing to play in a different way, with teams moving away from the traditional 6ft tall targetman in the middle to a front three who can move up and down the pitch quickly and break into the box.
Mail Sport’s Chris Sutton ranks his top-five favourite headed goals of the Premier League era.
Headed goals are an art-form but are becoming rarer and rarer in the Premier League
Back in the 1992-93 season, 265 headed goals were scored, but in the 2023-24 campaign there were 166, nearly a hundred fewer
Mail Sport’s Chris Sutton has ranked his top five headed goals in the Premier league era
5. Didier Drogba
Chelsea 3-0 Man City, August 20, 2006
Drogba was no stranger to heading in crosses — just look at the 2012 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. For this diving header, he had to stoop two feet from the deck to secure an opening-day win.
Dider Drogba skidded in two feet from the ground to head in Chelsea’s third against Man City after John Terry and Frank Lampard put the hosts 2-0 up
4. Les Ferdinand
Newcastle 5-0 Man Utd, October 20, 1996
Ferdinand was one of my favourite headers of the ball. This was a Premier League classic — a header that pinballed from crossbar to post before settling in the net as Newcastle defeated the champions 5-0.
Sutton states that Les Ferdinand (pictured right) was one of his favourite headers of the ball
3. Javier Hernandez
Man Utd 2-1 Stoke, October 24, 2010
The backheader at the Britannia. Hernandez was stepping away from Stoke’s goal as the ball came towards him, so he had to improvise.
He scored with one of the most instinctive headed finishes the League has seen.
Filling the void after Wayne Rooney had left, Javier Hernandez scored twice, and produced this athletic header to help give seal victory away to Stoke in 2010
2. Luis Suarez
Liverpool 4-1 West Brom, October 26, 2013
Suarez was 18 yards from goal. The ball flew towards him.
Most strikers would have brought it under control but he thrust his head forwards, finding the top corner from the edge of the box en route to an Anfield hat-trick.
Deciding not to control the ball and shoot, Luis Suarez sensationally decided to head the ball into the back of the net from 18-yards out
1. Alan Shearer
Blackburn 2-0 Man Utd, April 2, 1994
I was on my way to signing for Blackburn in July when I saw Tim Sherwood hang an inviting ball towards the back of the six-yard box for Shearer to head home thunderously — precisely the type of cross I wanted to attack!
Alan Shearer’s header against Man United back in 1994 helped Blackburn claim a 2-0 win vs the Red Devils and was Chris Sutton’s favourite headed goal
