Is this the goal of the season?

Papiss Cisse Wonder Goal

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has hailed Papiss Cisse’s second strike against Chelsea on Wednesday as an “astonishing goal”.

Cisse produced two goals of extraordinary quality to give his side a 2-0 win at Chelsea, a victory which boosts their hopes of finishing in the top three of the Barclays Premier League.

But it was Cisse’s second that grabbed the headlines.
Click here to view the amazing goal from Papiss Cisse

The 26-year-old was on the left wing and far from goal when he thumped a volley with the outside of his right boot over Petr Cech and into the far top corner of the net.

“It was an astonishing goal,” said Pardew. “We were seeing the game out at 1-0.

“Cisse took a chance and you can see he meant it. He’s hit it true. It is one of the great goals.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. As soon as he hit it Petr Cech was struggling and it nestled in the far corner.

“The fans who paid their money to come here, it will live long in their memories.”

The brace continues Cisse’s superb goal-scoring form since his transfer from German Bundesliga side Freiburg in the January transfer window.

He has scored 13 goals in 12 League matches to help give the Magpies a real chance of qualifying for next season’s UEFA Champions League.

And Pardew says he is delighted with how well the Senegalese striker has settled in at the club.

“You can’t say that we could predict the impact and the goals that he has scored but we knew that he was a good player,”

“The Bundesliga is one of the best leagues in the world. He gets more chances at this club and he has taken them and whenever he is near the goal, he is going to hit the target.

“He has been brilliant and he has bought into everything that we do here.”

The win, Newcastle’s first at Chelsea since 1986, was the ideal response after they were beaten 4-0 by relegation battlers Wigan Athletic at the weekend.

And it is the perfect preparation for Sunday’s crunch clash at home to title-chasing Manchester City.

“A team challenging for the title, a team challenging for the Champions League. If someone had said that to us at the start of the season, we probably wouldn’t have believed them,” added Pardew.

“It’s not often in a professional career that you get an opportunity to actually break into the top four in this country.

“We’ve been in and around it all year, we’ve touched fourth place and touched third a couple of times.

“We’re going to give it everything. If we miss out, it’ll still have been a phenomenal season.”