Welcome to theguardian.com review of the 2014-15 Premier League season. Now that the campaign has ended we would like you to help us choose your favourite goal, the best referee and the best manager, and other winners in a total of 10 categories.
We have nominated some contenders, but this is just to get the discussion going: we would like your suggestions so that we can compile the best into final polls that you can vote on. The polls will be published at midday on Tuesday 26 May, so please tell us what you think. Thanks
Philippe Coutinho v Southampton
In teeming rain, three minutes into Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Southampton at St Mary’s in February, Philippe Coutinho ran on to a pass from Lazar Markovic, took the ball in his stride and with a minimum of back-lift, pulled the trigger from 30 yards with his right foot. Despite making a valiant effort to get across his goal, Fraser Forster was powerless to stop this surface-to-air screamer as it curled beyond his fingertips towards the top left-hand corner and cannoned in off the underside of the cross-bar.
Ángel Di María v Leicester
During a season in which little went right for British football’s record signing, this was one of few personal highlights. Running on to a Wayne Rooney through ball to the edge of the Leicester City penalty area, Di María eschewed the option of attempting to take on defender Wes Morgan, choosing instead to pull off the far more difficult option of putting his head over the ball and bamboozling the helpless Kasper Schmeichel with the kind of flop shot any golfer would be proud to have in his repertoire. As a piece of improvisational genius it was second to very little, even if Manchester United did go on to lose one of the more surreal games of the season 5-3.
Bobby Zamora v West Bromwich Albion
Having lost nine of their previous 10 Premier League matches, Queens Park Rangers went into their match against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns with confidence and expectations snake-belly low. You wouldn’t have known it from their performance, mind. Having roared into a 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from Eduardo Vargas and Charlie Austin, Bobby Zamora all but sealed victory just before half-time with a volley of such nonchalance that spectators could have been forgiven for they were watching an exhibition match. Running on to a Matt Phillips pass down the right channel, the 34-year-old out-paced Joleon Lescott and then, without so much as breaking stride, lobbed the ball over Boaz Myhill with a glorious flick off the outside of his left foot. “Bobby Zamora probably hasn’t scored a better goal his entire career,” said Matt Le Tissier, who was watching the game for Sky Sports. “It was brilliant, and that was game over.”
Charlie Adam v Chelsea
Have that, Thibaut! Inside his own half, Stoke midfielder Charlie Adam picked up the ball, advanced a couple of steps towards the edge of the centre-circle and unleashed a murderous and spectacular left-footed drive, chopping across the ball with extreme prejudice after spotting Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois off his line. Back-pedalling more furiously than a Ukip parliamentary candidate who’s been caught making off-colour remarks at a rally, the Belgian managed to get a hand to the ball but was powerless to stop it sailing into his goal at the end of its 66-yard odyssey. “I didn’t enjoy it, but it was a goal that every top player in the world would love to score,” said José Mourinho after the game.
Jason Puncheon v Liverpool
Every list of goal of the season contenders worth its salt needs a decent free-kick or two in it and few players can strike a dead ball as well as Jason Puncheon. With his team at Anfield to rain on Steven Gerrard’s farewell parade, the Crystal Palace midfielder stole the Liverpool captain’s thunder with a curling left-footed effort that left Simon Mignolet rooted to the spot as it curled away from Alberto Moreno’s leap in the Liverpool defensive wall. Perfectly struck to the point of being unstoppable, the ball ended in repose in the bottom right-hand corner via the side-netting. It was Puncheon’s third goal from four direct free-kicks he’d taken this season, proving the Palace man is no one-hit wonder.
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