Captain Vantastic has announced recently that he’s happy to be rested.
Robin Van Persie was dropped from the starting line-up against Marseille on Tuesday’s Champions League game and Arsenal failed to score.
He is set to return against West Brom later today, but the question on everyones lips is – can we afford to rest him???
Despite the result against Marseille, I think it’s the right thing to do. We need to protect the Dutchman and give Park a chance to shine in some games, despite his unimpressive display on Tuesday.
Arsene Wenger is very aware that currently Robin Van Persie is in the best form of his career, having scored 28 goals in his last 27 Premier League matches. I would prefer us to continue doing well in the league and resting Robin when we can, we only need 1 win to qualify in the Champions League and have two games left to do so, so it’s not that a big issue if he plays every game.
However, it is imperative that we keep Robin Van Persie fit because currently he has been the difference between the opening few games of the season and the last 4-5 games. Robin has struggled over the last few seasons with injuries, missing periods for Arsenal where they needed him most and now finally Wenger is giving him his rest period period early and saving him for certain league games, which after all is currently a more likely target than winning the Champions League.
RVP said in a recent interview:
‘I feel really good, but I know that we are playing twice a week all the time at the moment, and that the whole squad will be needed at different times.
‘So I’m ready for anything. I know how it goes – the season is very long and we want to keep everyone fit. We have lots of games coming up.’
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I understand the feeling that RvP should be protected by being rested for some matches. But the way things are now in the team wecan least afford that luxury. He should be playing so long as he’s fit.