The Spaniard controlled Christian Pulisic's dinked pass on his chest, cushioned it on his knee and thumped a perfectly-executed volley in off the underside of the crossbar to seal a 2-0 victory against the Clarets.

It was quite the way for Alonso to mark his return to the team and certainly worth waiting until the final day of the month for the best Chelsea goal in January!

Alonso won the poll convincingly with more than three-quarters of the vote. Sophie Ingle's spectacular long-range strike against Manchester City in the Continental Cup came second.

Niamh Charles' volley in the same game was also nominated, as was Cesar Azpilicueta's opener against Burnley and Kai Havertz's header in the FA Cup win over Morecambe.

Alonso becomes the fifth different player to win a Chelsea Goal of the Month award this season, joining Reece James (September, v Brighton), Timo Werner (October, v Southampton),  Callum Hudson-Odoi (November, v Rennes) and Olivier Giroud (December, third goal v Sevilla).