BRIGHTON, England -- Diego Gómez's halfway-line strike for Brighton against Crystal Palace was the furthest a Premier League goal has been scored from since Wayne Rooney's effort for Everton against West Ham almost nine years ago.
Gómez won the ball back near the halfway line before unleashing an effort from 56 yards that caught Palace goalkeeper Walter Benítez off his line.
"Very pleased [for him] because like you mentioned, he's a hard worker and he always puts team first, " Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler said of Gómez.
"He always is 'we' [rather] than 'me' and therefore I know how desperately he wants to score goals. I know how desperate he wants to get involved in scoring and to have an assist.
"And I think last week he showed against Sunderland ... there was already that try from shooting from the [halfway] line. There the wind wasn't perfect for this try. Now the wind, I think, was better for him. So therefore really, really happy that he gets this reward for all the effort he's putting into the club, into his own development and into the team."
Gómez is the second Brighton player to score brilliantly from long-distance, with centre-back Lewis Dunk's strike against Coventry being voted the goal of the month for September.
When asked if this was worked on in training, Hurzeler said: "No, I think that's just quality. I'm not training with Diego Gómez to shoot from 50 metres in training.
"So we try to create a hunger in the player. We call it desire to score. And of course, when you have this desire to score, then when you win the ball, the perception of, okay, there's the goal.
"So I think we speak a lot about this goal now, but for me it's perception, the goalkeepers far out of the goal and then come quick into actions ... good first touch and with good first touch, you can then afterwards have the second touch and then scoring.
"And therefore, I think it's more on these kinds of things we are working on."
Gómez's goal put the Seagulls 2-0 up following an early Jaydee Canvot own-goal. Yasin Ayari scored moments after Gomez's wonder-strike to put them 3-0 in the opening ten minutes.
Brighton are the ninth team in Premier League history to score three goals in the first 10 minutes of a game.
The record for fastest three-goal is jointly held by Tottenham (1993-94 vs. Oldham) and Manchester City (2009-10 vs. Burnley) who both raced into a three-goal lead in the seventh minute of their respective games.
Further goals from Charalampos Kostoulas and Jack Hinshelwood saw it finish 5-0 to the Seagulls in what was a rampant attacking performance.
Brighton's goal tally for the season now sits at 23, the highest in the league so far and the win on Sunday saw them move provisionally into second place ahead of Arsenal.
Information from ESPN's Global Sports Research contributed to this story.
