Premier League awards Stoke goal to Harry Kane, triggers Liverpool fans

He did it. After repeatedly claiming that Christian Eriksen’s free kick glanced off of his shoulder and past Jack Butland, Harry Kane has been awarded Tottenham Hotspur’s winning goal over Stoke City in the Premier League match this past Saturday. The decision was made by the Premier League Goal Accreditation Appeals panel and announced by the Premier League Communications Twitter account.

It was apparently a close thing, but Kane’s insistence that he felt it glance off his shoulder had an effect on the panel’s decision, as they said in a statement:

The goal had originally been awarded on the day to Christian Eriksen, but after taking the player’s testimony into account and reviewing the match footage, a three-person panel agreed that the final touch on the ball belonged to Kane.

The goal is Kane’s 25th of the season, making him only the third player in Premier League history to score 25+ goals in three consecutive seasons, after Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry.

The goal also cuts Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah’s lead in the race for the Golden Boot to four, with six games to go. And if anyone thinks there’s not enough time for Kane to make up the difference, one needs only to look at last year’s Golden Boot race: Kane scored eight goals in Spurs’ last three matches to put him ahead of Romelu Lukaku.

For trolling-related purposes and context, note that Chelsea’s Didier Drogba only managed 25 goals in a season once in his career. Kane is now at 103 goals, one behind Drogba’s Premier League career total of 104. (Kane also, as I understand it, has more career Premier League hat tricks.)

Perhaps most importantly (and hilariously), this decision had the effect of triggering the whole of the Liverpool metropolitan area. Even Salah got into the action, taking to Twitter right after the decision was announced.

That tweet makes the whole thing worthwhile, and I am HERE for it. Troll on, Harry. Troll on.