Highbury Memories - 3rd May 1998

The arms raised, the nodding head and the general acclaim of a family showing adoration towards their favourite son. It wasn't the fact that he had settled our first premiership as the result had been sealed long before this goal. The sheer beauty of the goal was important - a defence splitting pass, neat chest control and a powerful left foot volley - but not the most important thing.

No, the reason this goes down as one of my favourite memories (beyond its place in my top 5 goals seen at highbury) is simply that the creator and executor of such a beautiful goal were not Bergkamp & Overmars, Petit & Wright or even Vieira & Platt but two people much entwined with the "old boring Arsenal". If anyone had suggested in 1994, in the dire days as George Graham's team struggled to play anything other than 1-0s or 0-0s, that we would witness Steve Bould and Tony Adams conjure up a moment like this, I politely suggest they would have been certified insane. It still gets the tears swelling as much as seeing the montage of Rocky and Mickey Thomas's goal at Anfield -it was that special. Apparently a certain Terry Venables saw TA when he was 15/16 and thought he was one of the most gifted footballing defenders he had seen. George made him a great defender but Arsene reinvented him as a footballer - what might have been???