To celebrate Brighton & Hove Albion v West Ham United being the 10,000th Premier League match, we asked past players to name their favourite.
Chris Kirkland
Chris Kirkland may have played 25 PL matches for Liverpool, battling for the top spots in the table, but his favourite match came in a relegation battle with Wigan Athletic.
Steve Bruce’s Latics travelled to Aston Villa on the penultimate weekend of the 2007/08 season, requiring a win to secure safety. Their final match would be against Manchester United so the stakes were high.
“There were a lot of nerves going into it,” said Kirkland. “Villa were doing well at the time, pushing for Europe. We were under the cosh a little bit.”
Nonetheless, Kirkland kept a clean sheet, and Antonio Valencia scored twice at the other end to earn an invaluable 2-0 win.
“Antonio was a great player and his two finishes were brilliant,” says Kirkland. “The team spirit was the biggest thing the manager created.”
Also in this series
Part 1: My favourite match - Phil Neville
Part 2: My favourite match - Paul Robinson
Part 3: My favourite match - Robert Pires
Part 4: My favourite match - Owen Hargreaves
Part 5: My favourite match - Dion Dublin
Part 6: My favourite match - Matt Holland
Part 7: My favourite match - Shay Given
Part 9: My favourite match - Joleon Lescott
Part 10: My favourite match - Fowler, Owen and Hutchison
Part 11: My favourite match - Alan Pardew
