Captain Vantastic...

Captain Vantastic Indeed!

40 goals in 53 matches in 2011, that record is not easy. Those many goals for a Barclays Premier League player is magnificent. For an Arsenal player, I’d say it’s outstanding. Robin van Persie: Respect!

"Arsenal are starting to turn their season around now. Wins at Marseille and Sunderland will surely boost their confidence. Robin van Persie is on fire at the moment" In fact i know you won’t criticize me if I have him the heart and soul of Arsenal football Club. After the 8-2 and 4-3 drubbings, many people had written Arsenal off. “Not good enough, they need to splash the cash”: stuff like this circulated everywhere on the internet as people began to list Arsenal Football Club as relegation favourites. Shocking isn’t it? For a club, nay the only English club to go undefeated in a season in the Premier League era, such a thought is offensive if you ask me.

“There is lots of time (left this season), but at some point you need to pick yourself up and prove what you are capable of, we are not doing that at the moment and are not consistent enough. It just frustrates me, and it is happening too often. Every time we start positively we just keep making the same mistakes and that is surprising.” These are words from Van Persie himself. Even as captain he knew things needed to pick up. Even if Arsenal are not favourites to win the league title this year (having fallen behind a rejuvenated Liverpool and a cash happy, “have money, will spend” Manchester City), Arsenal fans will always have dignity. That is one thing I’ve grown up learning. I won’t name any of the fans I’m talking about but I’m sure you guys have a huge grin on your face as you’ll read this.

I won’t hide this from you, whenever FIFA video games asked me to pick my favourite rival, it was never Man City (who were always the default one, for obvious reasons), nor was it Chelsea. It was the club that was founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich in south-east London. If you don’t know which club I’m referring to, then you probably shouldn’t call yourself a soccer fan. Blunt? Yes but true.

“Robin van Persie is a special player and he's shown that again today. He's blessed at the moment and let's touch wood with his injuries. He's shown what a great player he is when he can be consistently playing.” Such was the Robin van Persie I saw today against Chelsea. Magnificent just doesn’t describe him enough; he was far more than that. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger regularly calls his captain a “Special Player” and the Frenchman isn’t wrong if you ask me. Van Persie is a striker that any manager in the world would love to have at his disposal. Believe me, I always launch a bid for him while playing a Football manager game, but it’s easy to pry the heart and soul of Arsenal Football Club away.

"You could see how happy we are at the end because we fought hard and every one of us showed character.” The Arsenal captain could be any more correct. It’s always nice to see Arsenal fight for the title, not a team that wears light blue and can compete only because money allows them to. I’ve always been a fan of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger’s policy to develop young player - there’s nothing more satisfying to see a player from your own youth academy make it to the very top. True, Van Persie joined as a twenty year old and you won’t consider him a product of the Arsenal Youth System, but he’s been a Gunner for seven and a half years now and that is quite a marvellous achievement.

Of course the question on every Gunner’s mind is the future of their beloved captain. Van Persie has been dodging questions about his future but there is hope that he will sign a new deal that extends his stay in the red and white of Arsenal. "I am not going to make any statements about my future. Not now, not for a while. I've been at Arsenal eight years and that is quite extraordinary these days, which is why I treasure this. What my future will bring, nobody knows.”  Such character, such dedication to the game, things rarely found in a modern day footballer.

So to end in praise of a player who’s always caught the eye of fans. Robin Van Persie will go down into the Arsenal book of fame alongside the likes of former strikers Thierry Henry and fellow Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp. To the man who is sixteenth on the all time scorers list for Arsenal, I raise my hand and salute.

Photo Credit: http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/07e7b7k7oh0Ro/610x.jpg
Quotes Credit: http://www.football365.com/premier-league/7273411/Van-Persie-delighted-with-win
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/967560/robin-van-persie-has-faith-in-arsenal-but-undecided-on-future?cc=5901
http://searchtopics.independent.ie/quote/0b4A4hVfWX4D1?q=Robin+van+Persie
Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyZ5c3m3IJI