"Quite special," said Dennis Bergkamp with typical modesty when asked about the superb curling finish that capped both the victory over West Brom on Saturday and a day in his honour at Highbury.
But then perhaps Bergkamp is not the best judge of Bergkamp Day. The thousands of fans in orange T-shirts, the healthy contingent over from Holland, the roof-lifting ovation when he came on and the words "dream strike partner" from Thierry Henry are a better barometer of the man.
Few Arsenal fans would have been surprised at the affection in which he is held. It was a little different for the 36-year-old striker who retires at the end of the season
"Someone mentioned at the training ground that there would be about 10,000 fans in orange T-shirts," said Bergkamp. "I could not really figure out what it was, and when I came out for the warm-up, I thought 'whoa! this is it then'
"Orange has nothing to do with Arsenal or England, so it is good that they came out and supported me like that.
"I am just happy that apart from the whole day, it is nice to have come on and really been involved in the game, helping with the second goal and scoring the third.
"You have that feeling of being on the pitch and playing football. It is some time since I have had that now.
"Hopefully I can have a few more good moments like that and finish in a good way."
If Saturday's strike IS to be the last Bergkamp scores in his career then at least it was an archetypal goal by the technically-perfect striker. He saw a chink of an opening on the edge of the area and caressed a curling shot into the far corner. West Brom keeper Tomasz Kuszczak dived out of sheer optimism
"It reminded me a few goals I scored in 1998," he smiled, "bending it around the keeper. It was a good finish, but I would like to score more."
Bergkamp admits he has been thinking increasingly about a life without football. But there are ambitions left fourth place in the Premiership and, of course, the possibility of a Champions League Final
"We know what we have to do we have to win all of our games and even then we are not sure of fourth place.
"We can be focused on the Champions League, but those Premiership games around that tie are also important.
"We need a little help from other teams, but there is nothing else we can do apart from win these games."
It is what Bergkamp has been doing for the past 20 years and, as Saturday showed, the ability still remains.
"There's only one Dennis Bergkamp" rang around Highbury on Saturday when the veteran Dutch striker conjured up a goal to grace the day named in his honour. Thierry Henry agrees with the sentiment.
Arsenal's captain knows he had a maximum of seven games alongside his "dream" strike partner. He will savour every one.
"I have always said Dennis Bergkamp will remain the best partner I have ever had," said Henry. "He is a dream for a striker.
"He is not greedy you saw that on the second goal [against West Brom on Saturday]. He could have just gone for glory because it was Dennis Bergkamp Day but no. He dummied the goalkeeper, cut the ball back for Robert Pires who put it in the back of the net.
"The most important thing is the team. That is why I admire Dennis, and that is what he has been doing for a long time. I have always said he is the best guy that I have played with.
"Sometimes you have players who do not have to talk, you just have to watch them and that is the case with Dennis.
"If you are in the game, on the bench or watching on TV, you want to learn then Dennis Bergkamp, with the way he can kill a team with one pass, is just amazing. He will sometimes do things out of nowhere."
Having set up the goal that secured the three points, Bergkamp put the seal on the game (and his day) with a trademark curler from the edge of the area
"It was the perfect end for Dennis," said Henry, "and was a typical Dennis Bergkamp goal.
"A lot of players, when at the edge of the box, would have put their head down and smashed the ball maybe.
"Dennis knew he had time to do what he wanted to do and that was to bend the ball into the back of the net. It sounds easy and looks easy but I can tell you that it is not easy to do.
"It was a typical Dennis Bergkamp goal and what an end to the game."
on Dennis Bergkamp... "Intelligence and class. Class is of course, most of the time linked to what you can do with the ball, but the intelligence makes you use the technique in an efficient way. It's like somebody who has a big vocabulary but he doesn't say intelligent words, and somebody who has a big vocabulary but he can talk intelligently, and that's what Dennis is all about. What he does, there's always a head and always a brain. And his technique allows him to do what he sees, and what he decides to do."
Hát ez tényleg szép volt.Ez a 20 perc amit kapott nagyon tartalmas lett.1gól, 1 gólpassz.
Hát sajnos én sem látthattam túl sokat Bergit,mert én mégkisebb tökfej vagyok,de azért felvételről láttam egy pár meccset ami bebizonyította,h sokat tett le az asztalra.
Tényelg méltó búcsú!Bár lesz még egy igazi búcsúmeccs.A múlt és jelen.
Megkerestem a régi füzetemet, amibe még gyerekkoromba írtam a foci VB, EB eredményeit. Kiszedtem azokat a meccseket amiken Bergi is gólt lőtt. Ugye az argentínok ellen lőtt góljára mindenki emlékszik! (már aki életkorban ott van)
1992-es Európabajnokság Hollandia - Skócia 1 - 0 (Bergkamp győztes gól) Hollandia - Németország 3 - 1 (Bergkamp lőtte a harmadikat) Dánia - Hollandia 2 - 2 (Bergkamp egyenlített)
1994-es Világbajnokság Marokkó - Hollandia 1 - 2 (Bergkamp szerezte meg a vezetést) Hollandia - Írország 2 - 0 (Bergkamp szerezte meg a vezetést) Hollandia - Brazília 2 - 3 (Bergkamp lőtte a hollandok első gólját)
1996-os Európabajnokság Svájc - Hollandia 0 - 2 (Bergkamp lőtte a második gólt)
1998-as Világbajnokság Hollandia - Dél-Korea 5 - 0 (Berkamp lőtte a negyediket) Hollandia - Jugoszlávia 2 - 1 (Berkamp lőtte az elsőt) Hollandia - Argentína 2 - 1 (Bergkamp utolsó pillanatban továbbjutatta a hollandokat)
És ezek csak a góljai! A gólpasszait, indításait se lehet feledni!
Itt pedig egy másik statisztika a holland, olasz és angol bajnokságban lőtt góljairól, gólpasszairól (a kupameccsek ezekben nincsenek benne):
nyilatkozott az Iceman is csapatának fontosabb ügyeit érintve, azt kell h mondjam teljesen egyetértek vele mégha tőle szokatlan is kicsit ez a hangnem.
