Was this Arsenal's best goal ever?

The Premier League has been treated to some truly iconic goals over the last 25 years, many of them courtesy of Arsenal players. However, no goal can compare to one scored 15 years ago today by Arsenal's incomporable Iceman. 

Dennis Bergkamp's moment of magic at Newcastle, where he flicked the ball around Dabizas, turned the other way, met the ball with perfect control and finished coolly remains unsurpassed for its sheer genius. The goal was voted as the best solo goal scored by an Arsenal player in the Premier League era by Arsenal supporters and perhaps is the greatest example of the invention, flair and technical leadership shown by the one we call God during his 11 year long Gunners career.

Arsène Wenger, the man who has seen thousands of Arsenal goals, perhaps appreciated that goal more than any other for it was not only a spectacle but significant in Arsenal's pursuit of the double. When Wenger took his team to Tyneside it was with the necessity to win to draw level on points with Manchester United at the top of the Premier League. Bergkamp got that goal and the rest is history as they say. Wenger's appreciation was delivered in his typical measured manner but he could not mask a hint of an astonished, gleeful smile when he said "You will not see many goals like that, it was an unbelievable goal". He would reflect later on "You are blessed to see that when you come to a stadium. It was not only a magnificent goal but a very important one. I enjoyed it a lot."

It has often been mused that Bergkamp's moment of brilliance was an equal measure of luck and accident but we know he meant it. Bergkamp described the deliberateness of his action in his autobiography, Stillness and Speed. He wrote "I want the pass from Pires to my feet, but it comes behind me. It's not what I expect, so I think: I need another idea here. I know the defender is stepping in and the pace of the ball can help me. Ten yards before the ball arrived I made my decision: I'm going to turn him."

And turn him he did. A glance of his boot, a pirouette worthy of Baryshnikov and a display of strength to hold off the desperate Dabizas later he had slotted the ball past Shay Given to nestle perfectly in the far corner. It was perhaps the goal that ultimately won Arsenal the title as the Gunners went on to win 10 more in a row to clich the title by seven points.

Was it Arsenal's greatest ever goal? That's up to each of us to decide for ourselves. Let us now watch his goal with the reverie it deserves. All hail the Lord!

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