Football’s Greatest Goals No.41
There are players whose career can be defined by a single goal. One moment of magic that can be set apart from the rest of their career. This week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ stands out from the rest of the player’s goals because of its significance.
Ray Parlour was an Arsenal icon. He was almost the figure of fun in his early days, with Arsenal fans singing “There’s only one Shirley Temple!” because of his long blonde hair. It soon became apparent that although he hadn’t necessarily got the skill of some of the better players at the club, but he had a strong desire to succeed and put in a lot of hard work.
Parlour became a fan’s favourite for his grit and determination to succeed. Former team mate Marc Overmars called him ‘The Romford Pele’ once and the nickname stuck. The Highbury faithful began to refer to Parlour by that nickname too. He got a new lease of life when Arsene Wenger joined the club in 1996 and was a permanent fixture in the first team for the next eight years.
In 2002, Arsenal had just won the Premier League title and had reached the FA Cup Final. They were hoping to win their second Double in four years and their opponents were fellow London side Chelsea.
The match was a tight affair and remained goalless until the 69th minute when Ray Parlour scored a thunderbolt to put Arsenal into the lead.
Tony Adams started an Arsenal attack by rolling a pass along to Sylvain Wiltord who was stood in the centre circle. Parlour was stood in between the Arsenal penalty area and the halfway line. As soon as Adams had hit the forward pass to Wiltord, he ran full pelt through the middle of the pitch.
Chelsea centre back Marcel Desailly raced forward to try and dispossess his French couterpart but Wiltord was able to get past him. The Arsenal man spotted Parlour making the run and slid the ball through the gap where Desailly was supposed to be positioned and suddenly Parlour had a bit of space.
William Gallas moved across and blocked Parlour’s route to goal and Desailly managed to get back alongside his defensive partner. Neither Gallas or Desailly put in challenge and Parlour made a bit of space, looked up, and fired in a shot at goal.
The ball flew towards the top right-hand corner of the net. Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini dived at full stretch and was able to get touch on the ball but was unable to stop it crashing into the back of the net.
Nine minutes later, Freddie Ljungberg scored a fine individual goal to confirm Arsenal’s victory. Arsenal won the game 2-0 and the Double was confirmed.
Over the 2001/02 season, Sky Sports were running a new gimmick on their interactive service. One of the options was to listen to the game with ‘Fanzone’, a commentary of the game with a fan of both teams.
For the FA Cup Final, two celebrity fans were selected to cover the game. Arsenal had comedian Bradley Walsh and Chelsea’s fan was Soccer AM presenter Tim Lovejoy.
I remember watching the game with the ‘Fanzone’ commentary that day and as Ray Parlour started his run, Lovejoy dismissively said “It’s only Ray Parlour”. Seconds later, The Romford Pele left the Soccer AM presenter with egg on his face and Arsenal fans have never let him live it down!
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