This Week in Football History: Bergkamp's magical goal

A frame by frame breakdown of Bergkamp's wonder goal against Newcastle

Dennis Bergkamp was unquestionably one of the best players to grace the Premier League. Today, Adrian North looks back on the incredible magic trick the Dutchman pulled off against Newcastle in 2002.

March 2, 2002 - Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal, St James' Park.

"You can't blame anyone for that. You just have to accept that Bergkamp did a wonderful thing" - Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson.

When it comes to the greatest goals ever scored I tend to rank them based on how many attempts I believe I would need to pull off the same goal.

For Zidane's volley against Leverkusen I reckon after about 1,000 attempts I could recreate something similar with my weaker left foot. As for van Basten vs the USSR, I'd be looking at a couple thousand, and for Ibrahimovic's bicycle kick I, perhaps optimistically, think I'd only need a few hundred goes to hit a bicycle kick that well.

And this is obviously the difference between myself and a professional footballer. For something that would take me a thousand attempts in my backyard to pull off they can do it on a whim in a Champions League final.

But if you gave me ten billion attempts to recreate Dennis Bergkamp's goal against Newcastle I would fail every time.

It's often forgotten that Bergkamp's career at Arsenal was not always one of continued success. Between 1995 and 99 the Dutchman was indeed Arsenal's key figure but after the arrivals of Henry, Kanu, Suker and Wiltord all towards the end of millennium Bergkamp's future at Arsenal became increasingly precarious during the 00/01 season.

But the 'non-flying Dutchman' re-established himself in the first team the next season and together with Henry and a midfield of Ljunberg, Parlour, Vieira and Pires, Arsenal racked up 13 wins on the bounce to end 2001/02 in quite some style, including winning the title at Old Trafford.

But aside for Martin Tyler's manic scream as Sylvain Wiltord slotted past Barthez Arsenal's title run-in during 2002 is largely remembered for the single piece of skill Bergkamp pulled off away at Newcastle on March 2.

Bergkamp had returned to the Arsenal line-up after missing the entire month of February due to a three-game ban for a nasty challenge on Jamie Carragher in the FA Cup fourth round, an incident where referee Mike Riley also bizarrely sent Carragher off too for throwing a coin back into the crowd.

After ten minutes Bergkamp received a pass from Pires, performed the greatest magic trick I've ever seen, and slotted past Shay Given.

They say no goal is unique, for every over-the-shoulder volley or mazy run from the halfway line there is always a similar goal that is just as good. But Bergkamp's goal is one of the very few exceptions to this claim. I simply cannot comprehend the technique involved to perform such a piece of skill.