Paul Merson scores a banger

Everton 0-1 Aston Villa, Premier League, 2000

Paul Merson may have won two league titles with Arsenal, but one of his finest goals came during four years at Aston Villa.

A few months after coming off the bench to score his penalty in England’s shootout defeat to Argentina at the 1998 World Cup – helped by some positive thinking from super-spiritual coach Glenn Hoddle – Merson moved to Villa Park from Middlesbrough. “I played the best football of my career at Villa,” he tells Fourfourtwo.

He helped a talented side finish sixth in both of his first two campaigns, before John Gregory’s side opened the 2000-01 campaign with just two defeats in their first 10 games – aided by Gareth Southgate, Dion Dublin and a young Gareth Barry. “It was a shallow squad, we struggled whenever we got an injury, but some of the players we had were frighteningly good,” Merson says.

Then came a Bonfire Night trip to Goodison Park, when Merson was up against a man omitted from that England squad for France 98: Paul Gascoigne.

Gazza left the field injured that day, but a dull Super Sunday affair was lit up when Merson stole the show with virtually the last kick of the game.

A long ball in the general direction of Julian Joachim had been nodded away by the Everton backline; as the ball broke free in midfield, Mark Pembridge and Stephen Hughes got in each other’s way and Merson’s interception bounced off Scot Gemmill. In an instant, the 32-year-old composed himself and sent a 35-yard looping howitzer of a strike over Paul Gerrard and into the net, snatching all three points for the visitors.

“Wherever you are on the pitch, you know when the goalie is not on his line,” Merson says. “Sometimes he’ll be hovering around the penalty spot. The ball bobbled around and I just decided to hit it – I was absolutely knackered anyway. When I looked up, the keeper wasn’t off his line, he was back on it! It was a good job I hit it well.

“My immediate thought was the keeper had a shocker – you couldn’t get the local paper under his feet. In hindsight, it was a good goal – the keeper should have been further forward and it would have sailed over his head perfectly. John Gregory was especially happy – maybe he had me down as the first goalscorer!”