Arsenal 3-0 Wigan, or RvP’s Magic Hat (Trick)

While many of you were home or, even luckier, at the Emirates watching Wigan being taken apart by a full strength Arsenal side, I was running errands. I’m in the capital city this weekend, St. John’s, for a couple of reasons: 1) doc appointment on Monday, and 2) a local literary festival I wish to attend. Either way, since Ms. Gooner and I only come into the big city sparingly we tend to “save up” things that need to be done when we’re in here. Long story short, I missed the Arsenal game.

While I was beating around town going to sculptors’ shops, book shops, coffee shops, and the hospital (family member in recovery from an operation), Robin van Persie had what some might call the game of his career with the club. I was actually surprised to learn after the fact that Robin had never scored a hat trick with Arsenal in the nearly seven years he’s be here. I had assumed that somewhere along the way, while not injured, he had put three in in 90 mins, but that wasn’t the case it seems. I bet he was beyond elated by the time he was subbed off and kudos to Wenger for keeping him on long enough to allow him the opportunity to score a third.

After viewing the video of his three goals I was most impressed with the first and second. The first goal came from a through ball from Alex Song, beautifully positioned and powered. Robin only needed a split second to make the first touch from the left side of the box.

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As lovely as this goal was, the second put it to shame. Cesc, from just inside the Wigan half, puts van Persie in with a long ball to the left side of the visitors’ goal again. The first touch calmly places the ball in the top centre of the net and beyond any chance of a save from the keeper. This rivals a couple of Nasri’s great goals this season, in my opinion. We’ve certainly got some power in the final third, there’s no disputing that.

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I knew, from looking at my Score Mobile FC app that van Persie missed a penalty kick, but I haven’t seen video of it. From talking to a couple people on twitter it seems the kick was “way out there,” as in probably orbiting the globe as we speak. Not what we expect from the Flying Dutchman, but needless to say, it was an opportunity lost. Most people probably figured he’d have a hat trick from this shot, but it wasn’t to be. Robin would have to make due with another brace…or would he? (I know, I know, lame build-up).

Near the end of the game, with 84’ on the clock, another ball from Cesc finds its way to Walcott who’s making a run for goal with van Persie on his left. Realizing he’s not going to get a clear shot past the one remaining Wigan defender, Theo does the selfless thing and blocks the Wigan player so the ball remains open for Robin to nip in and take the goal. Beautiful team work and you can see that Theo wanted Robin to take the goal, giving up a chance for himself to score so the Dutchman could get a hat trick and make up for the missed penalty. Excellent work by all players involved.

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Those videos I got from arsenalloveftw on Tumblr, but came from @arsenalist on Twitter. Great to get to see these, though I’m still a little bitter having missed the game in which RvP breaks a personal milestone at Arsenal. Oh well, I’m sure there’s more in him yet and he’s got more scoring to do before the season ends. The man is fully back in form now and along with Cesc and Theo there’s a partnership that has already, in just a couple games, solidified into one of the strongest in the squad. These players seem to know each other very well, almost instinctually, which improves the quality of the football and the scoreline in the end.

Of course the challenges will get harder as we take on other clubs that fire on more cylinders than Wigan, but you can see that Arsenal are coming together very well mid-season. We’re now firmly in second place with this win (and City’s loss to Aston Villa) and just two points behind United. There’s a lot to play for this season and I think the players are starting to get hungry for it.

Cheers.