With his second-half strike against Everton, Jamie Vardy scored the Premier League's opening goal of 2019.
It was the first time a Leicester City player had struck the first goal of a calendar year.
It was also only the second occasion in the past six years that a forward had scored the year's opening Premier League goal, after Harry Kane did so for Tottenham Hotspur in 2017.
There were 1,032 goals scored in total in the PL in 2018, a drop of 52 on the previous year as defences tightened up.
Scorers of each year's first PL goal
| Year | Player | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Brian Deane | Sheff Utd |
| 1993 | Mark Brennan | Oldham |
| 1994 | Tim Breacker | West Ham |
| 1995 | Mick Harford | Wimbledon |
| 1996 | John Ebbrell | Everton |
| 1997 | Alan Shearer | Newcastle United |
| 1998 | Paolo Di Canio | Sheff Wed |
| 1999* | Hassan Kachloul | Southampton |
| Jason Euell | Wimbledon | |
| 2000 | Branko Strupar | Derby County |
| 2001 | Marcus Stewart | Ipswich Town |
| 2002 | Marcus Bent | Ipswich Town |
| 2003 | Juan Sebastian Veron** | Sunderland |
| 2004 | Juan Pablo Ángel | Aston Villa |
| 2005 | Joe Cole | Chelsea |
| 2006 | Steven Davis | Aston Villa |
| 2007 | Peter Crouch | Liverpool |
| 2008 | Danny Murphy | Fulham |
| 2009 | Curtis Davies | Aston Villa |
| 2010 | Tuncay Sanli | Stoke City |
| 2011 | Wayne Rooney | Man Utd |
| 2012 | Victor Anichebe | Everton |
| 2013 | Dimitar Berbatov | Fulham |
| 2014 | Fernandinho | Man City |
| 2015 | Ryan Shawcross | Stoke City |
| 2016 | Michail Antonio | West Ham |
| 2017 | Harry Kane | Spurs |
| 2018 | Anthony Knockaert | Brighton |
| 2019 | Jamie Vardy | Leicester |
*both scored after eight minutes of their matches
**own goal
