FA Cup: Ranking the best final goals of all time

4. Michael Owen – Liverpool – Arsenal 2001

Young Michael Owen was exciting. Some of his hamstring problems had already set in during the 2001 FA Cup final, but this was a 21-year-old who was well on his way to winning the Ballon d’Or.

Even then, the small forward looked like a schoolboy being tricked into an adult’s game and forced to wear a shirt several sizes too big for him.

Owen equalized with a clever half-volley in the 83rd minute as Liverpool edged Arsenal 1-0 under the Cardiff sun. But his winner five minutes later was straight out of the Chester-born striker’s playbook.

With Liverpool under pressure, Patrik Berger slotted a clearance towards the channel. Owen gave Lee Dixon an advantage but burned the grass to get there before him.

His first touch cleared the ball from Tony Adams’ hands, his second curled a left-footed shot past David Seaman’s far post.

Owen later said, “If I could go back one day, I would go back to that day.”