Arsenal Reaction: Could the Gunners Survive Without Robin van Persie?

Hop on the London metro from Emirates Stadium, and after a short-ish trip you'll reach the Embankment. Hop off and take a nice stroll, and you'll find the Globe Theatre nestled in snugly along the Thames River.

On Sunday, Arsenal captain Robin van Persie delivered the sort of save-the-day performance once written about by the scribe who is inextricably linked with that tiny, wondrous building.

In scoring two goals in a substitute effort to swing momentum firmly in his side's favor, van Persie led Arsenal to a 3-1 victory over Stoke that saw the Gunners shoot to seventh in the league standings.

A deus-ex-machina bit of wizardry by the wily Dutchman. William Shakespeare, that famous scribe I referred to, once included that device in Romeo and Juliet. One feels he would have been proud of van Persie's interpretation of that ploy.

Yet just as Shakespeare moved away from employing that specific literary device in his later work, feeling that it resolved problems too neatly (and when is that the case in real life?), one wonders if van Persie can continue to save Arsenal in such thrilling fashion.

The Dutchman has been in unstoppable form for the Gunners in 2011, scoring 25 goals in his last 26 league appearances. He has made history in the past month, scoring his 100th goal for the club against Bolton (Sept. 24), and on Sunday he scored Arsenal's 200th goal at the Emirates.

And it comes as no coincidence that this breathtaking 10-month run, which has seen the fastidious forward swashbuckle his way through opposing defenses with a captivating blend of classy finishing and ruthless poaching, has coincided with a lengthy injury-free spell for the infamously fragile No. 10 (he wears No. 7 for Netherlands).

Thankfully, there have been no headlines in 2011-12 about van Persie receiving horse placenta treatment in some far-flung Eastern European outpost, as reported by The First Post back in 2009 during one of the Dutchman's prolonged injury-induced absences.

Instead, it's his play that's garnered the attention, as it should be.

It has certainly caught the eye of Gervinho, Arsene Wenger's £10.7 million summer signing from Lille, who has formed a deadly partnership with van Persie in the Arsenal attack during the last two league games.

The Ivorian winger provided van Persie with an assist only 30 seconds into the Sunderland match last weekend, and added two more assists to the Dutchman Sunday against Stoke. Gervinho even managed to score his second league goal for Arsenal along the way, although that came before van Persie's introduction to the game.

ESPN Soccernet has run a story in which Arsenal's new No. 27 has exhorted his teammate to stay on at the Emirates.

Van Persie's future has been the subject of increasing debate in recent weeks—with his current contract set to expire in 2013, many have wondered if he might leave his club of seven years to pursue silverware elsewhere.

At 28, he is entering the back years of his prime. With that age-old clock ticking, will he look to make the most of his considerable prowess in an environment where he feels he has a better chance at success?

Gervinho certainly hopes that won't be the case.

''We always need our best players so a player like Robin, frankly, we need him to stay at the club,'' [Gervinho] said.

''You have to have leaders in the group and he is a player who drags the team forward. He is the captain, his role is to galvanise the group and he assumes responsibility."

''It would give me pleasure if he stayed. I have just arrived and I would like him to stay so I can play with him a while longer. Against Stoke, he came on and scored two goals. He is an excellent player and the team need him.''

Arsenal's defensive woes have been subject to incessant analysis, but it is an offensive statistic that is perhaps most illuminating about the club's struggles to start the year—and how if van Persie weren't around to save the day, things might be much worse.

Through nine Premier League games in 2011-12, Arsenal have managed to score 15 goals.

Van Persie has seven of them.

His clinical nature notwithstanding (he's also been on top form for Holland in international duty), that percentage is a worrisome figure, particularly when viewed in light of the fact that Arsenal were caught in a 1-1 dogfight with Stoke before van Persie was introduced as a substitute (67th minute) up front for the wildly ineffective Marouane Chamakh.

Needless to say, within six minutes of coming on, van Persie had scored.

In comparison to Arsenal, the current top four in the EPL standings—Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle United—have top scorers who, respectively, account for 27 percent (Aguero), 35 percent (Rooney), 20 percent (Lampard and Sturridge are both at four goals) and 41 percent (Ba) of the total goal-scoring output.

Newcastle's dependence on Ba brushes up against Arsenal's for van Persie, but the fact remains that the Magpies have, to this point, outperformed Arsenal.

If any of those leading scorers from the aforementioned clubs were to succumb to injury, the significance would be great (particularly regarding the talismanic effect Rooney has on United), but one feels that they could forge on ahead in his absence, what with Chicharito and a rapidly improving Danny Welbeck taking Wazza's spot.

In Arsenal's case, the next leading scorer after van Persie is Gervinho, who is alone with two strikes in EPL play. At the four other clubs, the next in line after the top scorer has at least three.

While the Dutchman's superb performance against Stoke elicited well-earned praise from Wenger, who said in a Soccernet piece that van Persie had not started the match due to him experiencing "muscular tightness" in the run-up.

It was deemed not severe enough to prevent him from making an appearance, however. Wenger applauded van Persie for turning the tie in Arsenal's favor with his goals, something the French manager said his star "can do better than many people."

Wenger has been a vociferous supporter of his central forward in recent weeks, raising his own defensive tone as the volume concerning a possible transfer for van Persie has reached a boisterous din.

While that staunch allegiance is admirable, it has deflected a growing suspicion that Arsenal's fortunes have become fused with the Dutchman's play.

Arsenal are no "one-man show," Wenger maintains, in response to the notion that has been bandied about in recent weeks, including this Soccernet article.

"When you want to be a team with quality you always have a player who stands out and who gets on the end of things," Wenger said. "We had Thierry Henry before. Robin has exceptional quality and so you get these questions."

It is no secret, however, that when Henry was at his peak for the Gunners, Arsenal were a much stronger side than they are at present. Past players like Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and even Patrick Vieira always seemed able to provide goals when the need was most pressing.

If van Persie is to succumb to an injury (the muscle tightness is a bit worrisome), could the Gunners forge on in his absence—would a top-four finish be even a remote possibility?

At present, that outlook, as the Magic Eight Ball once said, "does not look good."