Newcastle finished fifth in 2011/12 and though we haven’t had a lot to shout about since then, it is still worth looking back on the fonder memories from that season.
The strike partnership of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse was a particular highlight, with the latter managing an incredible 13 goals in 14 league games after joining in January. Not many Newcastle players have made such an impact on first joining before or since, and everything the Senegalese man did seemed to work like magic.
That was never truer than his wonderful opening goal at Stamford Bridge in 2012. Every Magpie knows it, indeed most Premier League fans do consider it was arguably the best strike of the decade.
Who was the better striker?
Cisse
Ba
It helped Alan Pardew oversee Newcastle’s first league win at Chelsea in 26 years and it is not surprising that a host of high-profile names have recently been looking back on it with great praise.
Speaking to The Athletic, Alan Shearer said “it was just out of this world”, while Cisse’s former teammate Jonas Gutierrez sums it up as “unbelievable”.
Even Didier Drogba was said to be dumbfounded at the time, and though the trajectory the ball took did seem otherwordly Cisse insists that he meant it.
Cisse told The Athletic:
“It was just instinct really. The ball was there, I was free, time was almost up… If it goes wide, at least we’ve wasted a few seconds.
“You can see I know where the goalkeeper is, so it’s somehow making sure the shot is on target. I just swing across it. I never knew it would fly like that, though… You need luck on your side and the belief that you can score just to try from there.”
The strike earned him the award for Match of the Day’s goal of the season, and more importantly allowed Newcastle to compete in the Europa League the following season as they pipped Chelsea to fifth place by a point.
It is a shame both Cisse and Pardew failed to replicate their effectiveness that season in the years after, but ultimately the blame should lay at Mike Ashley’s door for a lack of investment and a lack of ambition that ultimately resulted in the departures of key players such as Yohann Cabaye and Ba.