Source: Daily_Mail
When defenders attack - Vermaelen follows Bruce, Lescott and Pearce
With a dramatic 25-yard drive, Arsenal's centre-back Thomas Vermaelen took his goal tally for the season to five, a total that eclipses the efforts of strikers such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Dirk Kuyt and team-mate Robin van Persie.
The Belgium international has made a sensational start to his career at the Emirates since his £10million move from Ajax in the summer - assured at the back but, remarkably, also the Gunners' top scorer so far this term.
And there haven't been any scrappy toe-poked goals or shots finding the net off his shin either, Vermaelen's strikes have been of a very high standard (see his delightful curling finish against Wigan earlier this season).
However, Vermaelen wasn't the only defender to find the net at the weekend. In total, 20 per cent of all the goals scored were attributed to players who are usually noted for keeping strikes out rather than hammering them home.
And Sportsmail takes a look at other stoppers who refused to leave the glory to the strikers.
Martin O'Neill paid £1.6m to take the stocky defender from Oxford United to Leicester City in 1997 and Elliott became a mainstay and captain of the East Midlands side in the late Nineties.
His most successful season came in 1997-98 when the bagged seven goals in 37 matches for the Foxes but will be best remembered for his trio of headers in the semi-final and final of the Worthington Cup in 2000.
Manchester City paid £22m this summer for not only a top-class England defender, but a goalscoring centre-half. He was quick off the mark for Everton in 2007-08, scoring five goals after the first 11 games.
The former Wolverhampton Wanderers player managed to be in the right place at the right time when it mattered and ended the season with 10 goals to his name, including strikes home and away against what would become his new club.
We now take it for granted that Manchester United can score goals from all positions but leading that particular charge under Sir Alex Ferguson all those years ago was the flying Irish full-back.
The free-kick specialist wouldn't get a look in with the likes of Beckham and Ronaldo around but, in the early 1990s, he was the man to go to in dead-ball situations.
He scored a modest five goals in the 1992-93 season but, with United's first title in 26 years at stake, all his strikes were met with huge smiles from the gaffer.
Denis Irwin scores for United in a Champions League victory over PSV Eindhoven at Old Trafford
Spot on: Denis Irwin scores for United in a Champions League victory over PSV Eindhoven at Old Trafford
Stuart Pearce
Psycho earned his goalscoring reputation with his ability to tear a strip off the ball when striking free-kicks from around the area.
Pearce managed a remarkable 88 goals in 522 appearances with Nottingham Forest from left-back and his bullet strike against Tottenham in the 1991 FA Cup final is just one example of his prowess with a dead ball.
He later got his fair share with Newcastle, West Ham and Manchester City, plus one or two memorable ones for England.
Psycho thriller: Stuart Pearce scores a rocket free kick for Nottingham Forest in the 1991 FA Cup final against Tottenham, but ends up on the losing team
Steve Bruce
If there is a goal total that Vermaelen is working towards this season then he should look no further then the remarkable total of 19 Bruce scored for United in the 1990-91 season.
A goal tally that, today, would be enough to guarantee one of the current crop of England centre-forwards a spot on the plane to South Africa, Bruce finished the year as joint top scorer at Old Trafford.
His two late, late headers against Sheffield Wednesday in 1992-93, that virtually sealed the title for United, gave us Brian Kidd's awful celebration and that most contemporary of talking points: 'Fergie Time'.
