This time last year Robin Van Persie was Arsenal’s captain, the Golden Boot Winner and the PFA Player of the year after having a season of a lifetime.
Now most players and people would feel content with these accolades and have no problem in keeping the status quo.
Not RVP though, even though he had won all these individual accolades over the past few seasons, it still was never going to fill the void of not having won the Premier League after eight years in English Football.
RVP arrived in 2004 to Arsenal from Dutch club Feyennord for about three million pounds.
He was another purchase of Arsene Wenger’s highly successful youth policy and was tipped to have a top future in the game.
When RVP arrived at Arsenal the ‘Invincibles’ had just won the EPL undefeated and Arsenal were undisputedly the No 1 club in England.
It was a time where Roman’s Millions hadn’t arrived in Chelsea and Manchester United was in a transitional phase with Rio Ferdinand drugs scandal and David Beckham’s quick fire sale to Real Madrid.
RVP was never going to demand a starting position when the likes of Thierry Henry (Arsenal’s greatest ever player), Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires were all at their respective peaks, so RVP would have to contend with a place on the bench for most games, often being brought on late as a winger.
After the Champions League final loss to Barcelona in 2006 which signalled the start of Barcelona’s dominance in European football, and Arsenal’s steady decline, the Arsenal Invincibles were quickly broken apart.
Patrick Viera left for Juventus, Pires left for Villareal, Ashley Cole moved across town to Chelsea, Bergkamp retired, Thierry Henry would stay one more season to facilitate the move from Highbury into the Emirates Stadium and then pack his bags to hunt for the elusive Champions League that Arsenal was never able to offer him.
The end of the Invincibles was expected and planned for by the manger Arsene Wenger who had his batch of young and upcoming stars to take over.
Players such as RVP, Cesc Fabregas , Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy were expected to take over and give Arsenal another 5-10 years of domestic dominance.
However this didn’t go to plan.
Multiple injuries to RVP in every season from 06-07 to 09-10 would limit his appearances and he only scored 38 EPL goals in these four seasons.
He would of course hit 37 in all competitions in his final Arsenal season.
Regardless of the fact that he was always injured, Arsenal as a club became perennial chokers, screwing up simple chances at winning silverware.
For instance the 2011 Carling Cup Final where they absolutely choked against lowly Birmingham City after RVP had equalised making the score 1-1, Arsenal were widely tipped to kill the game off and get back to winning ways, they didn’t and concede the most pathetic goal in the final minute leaving them without a trophy for the sixth straight season.
Also in that same season RVP had his jersey number swapped from No.11 to No.10.
This signified that it was time for RVP to become the main man at Arsenal finally, something he would accomplish after the departures of Fabregas and Nasri in the summer of 2011.
The 2011-12 season began with RVP handed the captaincy, the starting Striker Role and the Number 10 jersey and him finishing off the previous season strongly with 22 goals in all competitions and most importantly injury free.
This was going to be the defining season in RVP’s career as a player at the age of 28. Succeed and he would be hailed as a world-class striker, another Wenger masterstroke and an Arsenal great, fail to impress and we would be seen by the football world as an injury prone player who never realised his true potential.
RVP delivered. And how.
Watching any Arsenal game last season you were almost guaranteed to witness a goal by RVP if not two or three.
Assists by Alex Song including one particular goal against Everton last season were a thing to truly behold.
RVP was outscoring players such as Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres, Adebayor, Mario Balotelli , Aguero, Tevez and Jermaine Defoe.
RVP clearly established himself as the dominant striker in the EPL and with that the rumours started to spread of other big clubs wanting to buy him from Arsenal.
RVP finished the 2011-12 EPL season as the Golden Boot Winner with 30 goals in 38 games.
The 38 games played is significant because it was the first time that RVP was able to complete a full season with Arsenal since he arrived and proved that Wenger knew how good RVP could be without the injury issues.
RVP also won the PFA Player of the year award.
The season ended with Arsenal in third place and with no major silverware as usual. RVP was now at the peak of his powers and his Arsenal team was not getting any better.
So RVP had reached a crossroads. He had accomplished as much as he could individually with Arsenal and the club had let him and its fans down by not investing in new quality players to replace the big names that had departed.
The transfer speculation had begun. Both Manchester clubs made no secret of their desire to bring RVP to their clubs hoping that he would be the difference in the EPL title race. RVP wanted to win the League, to solidify himself and his career.
Arsene Wenger was never going to stand in RVP’s way, that’s not how he operates.
RVP was given the green light by Wenger to negotiate between the Manchester clubs. RVP finally made his decision to join United after months of gossip in Mid August.
He signed for 24 million pounds on a four-year deal and was seen as a statement of intent towards Man City who had won the EPL by spending big.
RVP was quoted as saying that he listened to the little boy inside of him.
This in my opinion is one of the weirdest things he could have said but either way
RVP was now a United Player and Arsenal were once again left heartbroken. RVP chose to wear the vacant Number 20 jersey stating the he was here to win Title 20 for United.
RVP had laid down his mission now it was time for him to prove that he could accomplish it.
Questions were asked at the start of the season as to whether RVP and Rooney could work together in tandem as it was often believed that the both needed to be the Alpha Male of the team in order to succeed.
But Sir Alex Ferguson must have had a word with them as they both contributed equally to United’s title success this year.
RVP said that he and Rooney played as nine and a half, splitting the roles of playmaker and centre forward.
This new balanced team chemistry that was non-existent at Arsenal helped RVP to further improve his game and soon he was hitting goals on the regular, including a classic come from behind 3-2 win at Southampton with a RVP hat trick.
Finally RVP was at a team that helped him rather than hindered him and with that United flew well past City and all other challengers in the race for this year’s Premiership.
RVP had a little goal scoring drought in the months of February and March, but with Rooney, Kagawa, Welbeck and Hernandez to ease the pressure of him, it didn’t mean anything.
RVP broke off his drought and was back to business by April.
By this stage United were well clear of City and the title seemed a matter of when not if. On 22 April 2013 Manchester United played Aston Villa knowing that if they won they would win the Premier League again.
RVP would finally be able to justify himself in moving to Manchester and winning the trophy that eluded him ever since he arrived in England.
This match meant more to RVP more than anyone else in the stadium, players like Rooney, Vidic, Evra had EPL titles to spare.
RVP didn’t and he made the game his own.
With a first half hat trick, he basically ripped the Premier League trophy away from the hands of the noisy neighbours and brought it with him down to Old Trafford.
RVP’s hat-trick also put him into first place of the 2012-13 Golden Boot race which he will win due to Luis Suarez’s hunger for human arm.
I myself am no United fan but I couldn’t help but smile when RVP had finally realised his dream against all odds.
Now RVP can with his head up high after claiming and making United win Title 20 with 20 on his back. He came he saw he conquered.
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