Van Persie – I dream to play in Wembley final

By Richard Clarke  

Robin van Persie has a Wembley dream.

The Arsenal striker has never played at England’s national stadium but hopes to put that right by reaching this year’s FA Cup Final.

The Dutchman, who bagged a brace in Saturday’s Third Round win over Plymouth, has won the competition before. But that was back in 2005 when the showpiece game was held in Cardiff.

He scored in Arsenal’s victorious penalty shoot-out over Manchester United that day and had previously struck twice in the Semi-Final win over Blackburn, also at the Millennium Stadium. However, for Van Persie, Wembley remains special.

“In my first year, I scored two goals in the last eight minutes in the [Semi-Final] at the Cardiff Stadium,” he said. “It was fantastic to be in front of 70,000 people but it is still a dream for me to play at Wembley. I have never played there.

“Of course it was a dream come true for me as well when I scored two goals in the last eight minutes of a Semi-Final of the FA Cup - which of course brings you to the Final - but I still want to do it at Wembley.”

That Cardiff victory in 2005 represents the last time Arsenal lifted a trophy. Van Persie did not think he and his team would still be waiting for their next silverware in 2009.

“At the time, no [I didn’t think that] because they were winning trophies for fun,” he said. “I came to the champions so I was expecting something like that but it’s not really happened in the last three years.

“But it’s not a reason for me to give up – it is a bigger challenge for me to do it. If we can do it now, then it is a big achievement.

“If you want to win a trophy you need to see it game by game. You can’t say 'OK at the end I want to lift a trophy'.

“You need to give absolutely everything game by game. If you look at Man United, they had a great year, but if you look at the Champions League, they were lucky. Terry slipped. If he hadn’t, it would have been different.

“It’s really hard – the line between winning and losing is really thin.

“I know that everyone at Arsenal will give absolutely everything to win but still I can’t guarantee we are going to win.”

[Monday, January 05, 2009]

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