Sunderland, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and West Ham United strikers that helped rescue their side feature.
An in-form goal scorer can be the difference between survival and relegation in the crucial final few weeks of the Premier League season. This year, the goals of Christian Benteke and Fernando Llorente could be enough to rescue their respective clubs from the dreaded drop.
Let’s remember some of the strikers that dug their team out of trouble:
Yakubu (Portsmouth, 2004)
‘Feed the Yak and he will score’ – That’s exactly what Harry Redknapp and Portsmouth fans found out at the back end of their 2003/4 campaign.
With 10 games to go, Portsmouth were sitting three points adrift in the Premier League drop-zone ahead of a crunch showdown with South Coast rivals Southampton. Yakubu stepped up to net the winning goal and inspire an incredible turnaround in fortunes for Pompey.
The Nigerian forward went on to score another nine goals, as Portsmouth won six of their remaining 10 fixtures. This included a late winner against Blackburn Rovers and a hat-trick versus Middlesbrough on the final day of the season.
Carlos Tevez (West Ham United, 2007)
After a gut-wrenching defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham were bottom of the Premier League with nine games left to rescue their position.
It came down to Argentine forward Carlos Tevez, who controversially signed from Corinthians in the summer, and Bobby Zamora to bag the important goals for Alan Pardew’s side. The strike pair scored in wins over Blackburn and Middlesbrough before Zamora netted in wins against Arsenal and Everton.
As the fight for survival went to the final day, Tevez scored the winner at Old Trafford to seal the Hammers’ safety. It was his sixth goal in nine appearances.
Connor Wickham (Sunderland, 2014)
On the back of seven defeats out of eight, bottom-of-the-league Sunderland faced a daunting trip to Manchester City with six games left to play.
Despite conceding a late City equaliser, Connor Wickham’s brace gave the Black Cats some much needed hope – and a point to take away from the Etihad Stadium. Three days later, Wickham scored at Stamford Bridge to help Gus Poyet’s men to a surprise victory over Chelsea.
The young English forward then netted another brace against Cardiff City to take Sunderland out of the bottom three. Fabio Borini, who also found his goal scoring touch late on in the season, helped finish the job off against West Bromwich Albion.
Christian Benteke (Aston Villa, 2015)
Following a run of 12 games without a win, Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa looked doomed for the Championship along with fellow strugglers Leicester City.
With minutes remaining in the Midlands derby against West Bromwich Albion, Benteke stepped up to score the winning goal from the penalty spot – and give Sherwood his first league victory in charge.
The powerful Belgian would go on to add 10 goals in the remaining 10 games, including braces in the wins over Sunderland and Everton, to almost single-handedly keep Villa afloat.
Jermain Defoe (Sunderland, 2016)
After helping Sunderland to survival in their 2014/5 season, Jermain Defoe was called upon once again to bag the decisive goals for Sunderland.
Now under manager Sam Allardyce, Defoe grabbed five goals in eight games to lead Sunderland to safety and condemn local rivals Newcastle United to the drop. Defoe’s heroics included strikes against Southampton, Newcastle, Norwich City and Stoke City.
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