Wenger Indebted To Van Persie

Arsene Wenger was indebted to substitute Robin van Persie after the Dutchman scored twice to sink Stoke 3-1 in the Barclays Premier League.

Wenger’s decision to start his captain on the bench almost backfired as they had only Gervinho’s strike to show for their dominance in the first half. To add to their problems, former Tottenham striker Peter Crouch had marked his return to north London with an equaliser 10 minutes before the interval.

But with the Gunners labouring after half-time, Van Persie was finally let loose with 25 minutes remaining. And within a quarter of an hour he had scored twice to bail out his shot-shy team-mates and take his goal tally to 29 in his last 34 appearances for the club. Wenger then revealed the in-form frontman was nearly not involved at all, only passing a fitness test in the morning before the game.

The Gunners manager said: “The second half was basically all us, especially after the first 15 minutes, and then the problem was to score goals and Van Persie can do that better than many people, and he did it when he came on.

“He had muscular tightness, I was not even sure he would be on the team sheet but we checked him this morning and he was medically all right to be on the bench. Before you leave him out you think always 15 times ‘do I really do it’ but I felt at some stage, and looking at the number of games he has played and with his history, you have to be cautious.

“He played two full games with Holland and the whole game against Sunderland, he played up front alone in Marseille, so at some stage you have to give them a breather, but up front it’s difficult. Of course Robin, with his two goals, deserves massive credit but I think Gervinho had a very lively and influential game as well.”

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