Tottenham fans have crowned Mathys Tel‘s solo run at Stamford Bridge as the club’s Goal of the Month for October, and the same strike is now in the running for the Premier League’s version of the award.
The club confirmed the fans’ vote on Wednesday. A day later, the Premier League put Tel on its eight-man Guinness Goal of the Month shortlist, alongside one of his own team-mates: James Maddison, whose curler against Coventry City is in there too.
So the race for the league prize has a little N17 rivalry built in. Two Spurs goals from two Spurs wins in the same month, and only one of them can take it.
Why did Mathys Tel’s Chelsea goal win the fans’ vote?
Because it finished off a famous night in west London. Tottenham had dominated at Chelsea and went ahead on 77 minutes when goalkeeper Mike Penders punched the ball into his own net. Cole Palmer was then sent off, and with three minutes left Tel made sure of the 2-0 win.
He won the ball back inside his own half, carried it 40 yards, got away from Josh Acheampong, skipped past his compatriot Maxence Lacroix and fired low into the bottom left corner from range. It was his first goal of the season, after a pre-season the club described as a standout one.
It was also the kind of goal that sticks, because it came at the end of a performance rather than out of nowhere. Spurs kept the ball, stayed calm and broke Chelsea down, and the run was the exclamation mark.
What De Zerbi and Tel said after the Bridge
Roberto De Zerbi was delighted but did not let his young forward off the hook. Speaking to the club after the game, he said: “Yes, but he has to push, to push, to push, to keep going, because he’s a talent. He has to clean the last 30 metres, the last decision, the last pass, the shot. He has an unbelievable shot.”
The head coach added: “I believe in Mathys, maybe more than he believes in himself.”
Tel sounded just as grounded. “I’ve worked a lot on areas I had to work on,” he told the club. “Today, it’s a step forward. As a team, it’s a step forward, but also for myself. I’m very happy about my performance today. I think that I can still do better. I can always do better.”
Maddison or Tel for the Premier League Goal of the Month?
That is the question Spurs fans now have to answer, and it is not an easy one.
Maddison’s curler against Coventry
Maddison’s goal came in the 3-1 win over Coventry City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 19 October. Mohammed Kudus skipped past his marker inside the Coventry half, cut in from the right and rolled it to Maddison, who whipped a first-time finish into the far top corner from just outside the box to give Spurs a 14th-minute lead.
It meant even more given the context. That was Maddison’s first competitive start in 526 days, and his first goal since he scored on his previous start, in the Europa League win over Bodo/Glimt on 1 May 2025.
Who else is on the Goal of the Month shortlist?
The Spurs pair are up against six others: Manchester City’s Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki, Newcastle defender Sven Botman for his strike at Coventry, Ipswich Town’s Abdoul Ouattara, Bournemouth’s Evanilson and Brighton’s Diego Gómez.
It has been a good week for awards in N17 in general. Jan Paul van Hecke is on the shortlist for Player of the Month and De Zerbi is up for Manager of the Month, which fits with how Spurs dominated the Premier League team of the week after beating Crystal Palace.
When is the Goal of the Month winner announced?
Fans can vote until 12 noon on Monday 9 November. The public vote is then combined with a panel of football experts, and the winner is due to be revealed on Friday 13 November.
For Spurs, either result would round off a month that has the whole fanbase asking whether this team is genuinely back.
Tel’s run deserves the prize
Maddison’s finish was the purer strike, and the story behind it, a first start in well over a year, is a lovely one. But Goal of the Month rewards the whole goal, and Tel did everything himself: the tackle, the carry, beating two defenders and a finish across the goalkeeper, in a London derby at Stamford Bridge.
If the experts and the voters split, the Spurs fans may well end up deciding it. Our vote goes to Tel, and the bigger hope is that De Zerbi gets more of those runs from him every week, not just once a month.
