With the imperial form Robin van Persie has been enjoying for the past 15 months or so, it has been a no-brainer for his boss on whether to select him or not.
The 28-year-old Dutchman has proven the gaffer right on letting him fill the boots of the Togonator, a.k.a Ade. With the numerous positives Arsenal have gained from Van Persie’s prolific form, surprisingly there are no negatives on his part to go with it.
As we all know, everything in life has both negative and positive sides.
One negative to Van Persie’s blistering form is the fact that he has given no room for other strikers to find a platform for expression of their true qualities, as they literally have no playing time. It is good for a team to have substitute strikers whom when called upon can get among the goals. Van Persie’s form, assists, goals, influence and leadership amongst other positives has made it difficult for Le Boss to bench him or even substitute him during games because you just have this feeling he can create or score at anytime, even at the death as evidenced in past games.
The strikers behind him in the pecking order are Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu-Young, not forgetting Carlos Vela and the big burly Dane and self acclaimed world’s best striker, Nicklas Bendtner, who are both presently away at Real Sociedad and Sunderland respectively.
Before Robin decided to carry Arsenal on his back like it’s his family business, we had Chamakh deputise for him, and he made a blistering start to his Premier League career with a 10 goal return only for a short sideline and a return for Robin to end his fairy tale arrival.
Park on the other hand has not been able to get a string of games under his belt, as his arrival was after Robin started his mission to destroy whatever goalkeeper and defence stood in his way. Chamakh also seems to get the nod ahead of the South Korean forward.
As an admirer of the Flying Dutchman and a lover of AFC, I get stick from other fans who have predicted without a single count of success on Robin getting injured sometime in the season. They’re so quick to point out how over-reliant we are on Robin and how his glass legs would soon give way and we’d hit a bad patch. Even though I always remind them that Robin has had all the setbacks he’ll ever have injury-wise in football, sometimes I wonder how we’d fare if RVP does decide to go on a ‘trip around the world’ for say four weeks or he decides to ‘see what the other strikers can do’ whilst he takes a break sometime during the season. We of course would be left with the two players mentioned above.
Don’t even want to imagine van persie getting an injury between now and the end of the season. IT WOULD BE A DISASTER. But if it does happen, then walcott would have to play upfront with gerv and ox playing on the flanks.
to be frank i too want some game time 4 park bt nt at d expense of van persie’s injury.
Park doesnt get much game time because of the language barrier, he speaks more or less no english so plays cant connect well enough with him yet, he speaks french but not everyone in the team does, hopefully he will pick it up over the summer and we might see his quality that hes shown for previous club and country!
FootbAll language is not english or french, that guy needs playing time
Park is never going to be good enough. We must sign a top striker to help RVP
You haven’t even seen this guy plAy And u say he aint good enough
Park Chu Young doesn’t get the captain’s armband ahead of Park Ji Sung because of higher quality. It’s because Park Ji Sung is retired from the national team.
Park’s body language is a picture of defeat whenever I see him even in training images. A coach will find it difficult to play a player that has the look of fear.
Do not get me wrong, this lad has much ability, but he will need a few games in the 1st team to regain his confidence. The question is how much time have we got???
Park should be given more playing time by Wenger.
He is definitely better than Chamkah!
His movements and ball play and eye for goal is good!
Hopefully, and I mean hopefully, now that we have a more balanced side that has started to hit form, we may get into a position where we are 3 goals up at half time and we can rest RVP. Then these fringe players can get a decent look in?
I agree that RVP does dominate the focal point of attack to the exclusion of the others. not a bad thing whilst he is scoring like he is, but what if he has a sudden loss of form? (Perish the thought!)
It would be nice to give the youngsters some first team game time before the season ends … only 6 weeks remember. If a few early goals go in it will be an opportunity, especially for the likes of Park, who just may be a better performer on the pitch than he is in the training ground?
Obviously, if RVP just happen to be injured or otherwise, I think that the Ox should take his place. He is tall,a strong runner and a hard shooter at goal when the opportunity arises, and with two natural three wingers when the Japanese returns to Arsenal when required part of the problem would be solved
The few times that Van Persie has been rested, Chamakh & Park have done fuck all accept when Park played against Bolton in the League Cup. I would rather move Gervinho into the central striking position then have them two upfront because at least with Gervinho chances are going to be created.