Look, I’m not taking anything away from Francesco Fabregas strike against Tottenham. It was a wonderful individual goal, albeit, aided and abetted by some of the worst defending in living memory. However I feel I have to put this goal in perspective. Yes it was very good, yes it was a brilliant piece of play by Fabregas, but to call it the “best goal ever” is, in my view, plainly ridiculous.

Individual strikes of quality are rare, but not unheard of and here is a video of ten that I believe far outstrip the one Cesc managed against Tottenham at the weekend;

While I don’t doubt the quality of the strike I feel Fabregas was aided in several ways. First the defending from Tottenham was not even worthy of being tarred with the epithet “schoolboy”. No really, it was almost as bad as Liverpool’s defending at times. Secondly Fabregas didn’t receive the ball as part of a sweeping move or from a simple pass from his team mate, it was a deflected Tottenham pass that gave him the chance to get behind the sleeping Spurs midfielder and up one on one against the leaden footed Ledley King, still probably stunned from Van Persie’s goal just seconds earlier. Thirdly, it was scored against Heurelho Gomes and that is an automatic minus 5 points on the cool goal scale because in between bouts of being brilliant, the Brazilian is usually hopeless, though he was entirely blameless for this goal.

Indeed, even if I just restrict myself to Arsenal goals, I can find many better, can you argue with any of these strikes as being better than Fabregas?

Thierry Henry against Liverpool ?

or Dennis Bergkamp against Leicester

and if we include Spurs… I don’t think Fabregas strike is the best goal in this fixture even if we just look at the past two years…

That’s not to discredit Fabregas effort. It just, to me anyway, highlights just how good the recent matches between Arsenal and Tottenham have been and how spoiled for choice Arsenal fans are when it comes to selecting their best goals from the past few years.

So yes, it is a fantastic goal, it is everything that Arsenal fans say it is, but the best goal ever? Not even close.

Or do you disagree? Let me know below.

Oh and if you are wondering what IS the best goal ever… it’s this…