VICE Sports Premier League Player of the Weekend: Aaron Lennon

This story originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

There's been so much football over Christmas and New Year that we could have chosen any one of a dozen players to praise this week. There was Cuco Martina, who scored a goal so good against Arsenal that CERN staff ditched the Large Hadron Collider to work out how he got that ball to bend so much. Mesut Özil has continued to shine. Romelu Lukaku is doing a Jamie Vardy – the goals, not the casino thing – and Jon Obi Mikel has suddenly decided he's going to save Chelsea's season.

We didn't pick that lot, however, because for the most part we were too boozed up and stuffed over Christmas and New Year, so we couldn't actually tell you a great deal more about the festive football. Say sorry to Cuco Martina for us, won't you?

We do have a winner, however: Aaron Lennon, a man with his own Cinderella story, and the scorer of a goal against Tottenham that was simply dripping with attitude.

Having spent so long at Spurs – publicly admitting his excitement at only being months away from a testimonial – his sale last summer was met with some sadness. For the best part of a decade, Lennon was a constant in the Tottenham side. His brand of quick attacking play was synonymous with what the club wanted to be known for on the field. He used his size to his advantage, skipping past, under, and around players like football's answer to Muggsy Bogues, and he loved the crowd as much as they loved him.

As a man from Little London in Leeds who graduated to the capital and made it his own, there was a rags-to-riches element to his rise as well. The only things he was more committed to than Tottenham were shaving lines into his eyebrows and throwing up the gun-fingers when he scored, but all that did was help endear him to the masses. Could this man you half expected to take to the field in a pair of Air Force 1s really be part of the reason David Beckham lost his spot in the England team?

On Sunday, Lennon came back to haunt Spurs with a wonderful goal completely against the run of play. He ghosted into the box from the right wing, took one touch to control and then perfectly placed the ball beyond Hugo Lloris in the opposite corner, leaving Jan Vertonghen looking rather daft for failing to block the ball. As is custom, his celebration was muted, but the smile on his face was that of a man who'd just received closure. Lennon was walking past an ex on the street, happy, successful and with someone new on his arm.

For a while after the goal, Everton made the change of pace count. Having done nothing before going one up, Lennon suddenly came to life, rolling back the years and looking a threat again, tracking back on his wing and causing a hassle in attack for his former side. He may as well have had 'fuck you' printed on the back of his shirt and played the entire game with both hands aloft, and his middle finger extended in the direction of Daniel Levy in the stands. This new Tottenham side – with a defence so good they ended 2015 with the best goal difference in the league – were being undone by someone they'd discarded for a nominal fee. It was almost poetic.

In the moment the ball flew past Lloris, the film version of Aaron Lennon's life would have cut to a flashback montage of his best moments at Spurs: the winner at home against Chelsea; the goal in the 4-4 away at Arsenal; the home winner against the Gunners; and the assist in the San Siro for Peter Crouch that ultimately knocked AC Milan out of the Champions League, sending Spurs to the quarters. Just as the ball hit the net, there'd be a voiceover of Lennon admitting that he was looking forward to the testimonial that never came, and the almost Shakespearean tale of revenge and redemption would be complete.

Sadly for Lennon, Tottenham extended their record of never having lost a game in which he scored, equalising just before half-time through Dele Alli, who can't be far off one of these awards himself. But the youngster must wait for now. For services to self-empowerment and independence, Aaron Lennon is our Player of the Weekend.

@bainsxiii