Arsenal can’t score without van Persie

King
By
November 3 2005

Arsenal can’t score without van Persie. Not quite true, but there is a point to the statement. If we exclude Henry from the goal-scoring tally, this season, in all competitions, who is getting the goals?

 Especially if the criteria is confined to open play. Well there is Campbell and Cygan, with a brace; but Pires, Freddy, Reyes and Bergy have only the odd goal, but the man with a brace twice is van Persie.

On Saturday he didn’t score against Spurs, but after he came on Arsenal improved. At Sunderland he was excellent, and last night against Sparta he killed them off in 20 minutes. Indeed until he came on it was hard to see when Arsenal would take advantage of all their superior possesion.

In the preview to this match I warned about complacency, and with hindsight the 3-0 score might indicate that there was no need to worry. However the score could have been different, if Sparta had taken one of the several chances allowed by slack defending. At time the defence was slack and even absent minded. At half time the Gunners were only 1-0 up after another magical Henry goal. Reyes gave Thierry an excellent pass and Henry teed himself up. I was directly behind the goal, and the amount of curve on the ball was incredible, the ball appeared to be going wide, until it spun round and just avoided the post and the goalie.

However after that Arsenal seemed to go off the boil, passing the ball around with one too many touches. It was cul de sac football going nowhere. The crowd tried to lift the team, but the players seemed determined to coast. The crowd amused itself by singing "fuck you Mourinho", "only one Arsene Wenger", and the hilarious singing of "you only sing when you winning", this was aimed at Arsenal fans who had got unwanted Sparta Prague seats, by the Clock End season ticket holders. Who in all fairness were probably more noisy than the regulars.

Then the crowd chanted for van Persie – Wenger clearly wanted to rest Henry and the wish was granted. Van Persie replaced Thierry and was given the luxury of 19 minutes to make his mark, and make his mark he did. It was getting a bit nervy, if it stayed 1-0 for much longer then Sparta could have got a late draw or worse.

Just as at Spurs, with RvP on the field we became faster and more direct. Robin gets stuck in, like a motorboat without a driver he heads for the penalty box, nothing deflects him, all the time looking for the shot.

He also takes a mean free kick. Within 11 minutes after a wonderful pass from Bergy he struggled to control the ball, evaded two defenders and smashed in a rocket of a ball. A few minutes later he passed the ball into goal from an assist by Eboue. He was probably unlucky not to get a hatrick – as he had last minute chances scrambled out.

We now have two strikers on form; hopefully Pires will continue to improve, although his shooting was wayward today. And once Freddy is also fit the goals will start rolling in.