It seems to be the same old story year after year with Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie; starts the season off well and plays approximately the first 15 games, but then finds himself in the medical room for months on in.
Following the shock defeat to Spurs last Saturday, Arsene Wenger accused the Dutch striker of lacking match fitness and ordered the 27-year-old to improve on this, or find himself being placed on the bench more often. However, the question really here is, has Robin Van Persie’s time at Arsenal finally run out?
The question may come across as a harsh one, but in all fairness, is it not one that a lot of Arsenal fans have been either contemplating or asked?
Robin Van Persie has been with the North London outfit since 2004 where he left Eredivisie side Feyenoord, and has made a total of 201 appearances (134 in the Premier League) and netted 73 times (in all competitions) so far for the Gunners. The goal ratio per game speaks for itself, but frankly it should have been higher after 7 years at Arsenal.
Van Persie was touted by Wenger and fans alike as the next Dennis Bergkamp. Although the striker may have shown glimpses of this comparison in the early stages of his Arsenal career through his skill and technique, a plague of injuries pretty much ruined the experiment. Robin Van Persie has not managed to complete a full season without a long-term injury lurking around the corner. Last season the Dutchman managed to net 10 times in all 20 games he played for Arsenal (16 in Premier League and 4 in Europe). He got a goal every other game, but again injury held him back.
Robin Van Persie started the new season off with no injuries to his name after returning from a successful World Cup tournament in South Africa last summer. The Dutchman also became the new number 10 at the club after it was made available, but it didn’t take long for his curse to strike once again. The striker picked up his ankle injury against Blackburn in late August and has since been slowly introduced into first-team action.
I am not in anyway stating that Robin Van Persie isn’t a great player, because the fact of the matter is he is. The Dutchman is arguably one of the best strikers in the world when he is fit and of course on top of his game, however, this is a very rare site these days.
Van Persie is entering the prime of his career, and although his ability is not in doubt, his fitness is. The striker has become an injury-prone player in the past few years, and many Arsenal fans will feel (like me) that the Dutch striker’s days at the Emirates may have to come to an end sooner rather than later because of this, despite the Dutch international being such a quality player.
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I love Van Persie, but I do understand what the writer means, he is constantly injured and never provides a full season for Arsenal. It would be great if he was fit all season, because I think he could easily get 20+ goals a season, I think if he was fully fit he could even be top premier league goal scorer.
I think if he is constantly injured every season, then Wenger should consider selling him.