With Robin Van Persie Out At Least Three Weeks, Spotlight Is On Marouane Chamakh, Nicklas Bendtner

When Robin van Persie scored his tremendous equalizer in Sunday’s Carling Cup final he immediately crumbled to the pitch and got up with a very noticeable limp that brought on shouts of the oft-injured Dutch striker being made of glass. Despite his apparent pain, van Persie got up and looked to have shaken off the injury when he played another 30 effective minutes before being substituted. Two days later, it has been revealed that van Persie’s knee injury is nothing to sneeze at. The striker will be sidelined for a minimum of three weeks and possibly the entire month of March, according to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

With Birmingham leading Arsenal 1-0 in the 39th minute of the Carling Cup final, van Persie wonderfully took a half-volley and put it past an otherwise impenetrable Ben Foster to equalize. Unfortunately for the Dutchman, in the follow through to his kick he kicked Roger Johnson’s knee to cause his injury. Now Arsenal are in quite the pinch as they navigate an important stretch of matches only made bigger by Manchester United’s loss to Chelsea.

Now that United has dropped points, Arsenal sit just four points back of the Red Devils for the top spot in the league with a match in hand, and when the two clubs play each other on May 1st, it will be at the Emirates. From here on out, every match is of the utmost importance as the Gunners try to end a six year trophy drought.

Additionally, Arsenal’s Champions League second leg at Barcelona is just a week away and now they will have to go at it without their top striker. That is in addition to Theo Walcott, who had been previously ruled out with an ankle injury and Cesc Fabregas’ status still in doubt with a hamstring injury. For all the excitement generated by Arsenal’s comeback from a goal down in the first leg, a one-goal win in the home leg of a two-legged tie in which you surrender an away goal is not ideal by any means, so the pressure will be on the Gunners at Camp Nou.

In van Persie’s absence, Arsenal will have to look elsewhere for quality striker play, and for the most part the spotlight shines on Marouane Chamakh, for better or for worse. Chamakh leading the line is not completely new as he did so early in the season when van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner were injured.

Chamakh acquitted himself well in the early going, scoring 11 times before the new year, but his play tailed off as the calendar turned. A strong aerial presence, Chamakh brings a bit of a different dimension to the team, but he is similar in many ways to van Persie. He often drops deep into the midfield to receive the ball and distributes well, as does van Persie. He has the physical qualities to succeed in the coming weeks, but it will be how he has matured in the past two months and learned how to deal with the Premier League’s physicality that will determine his ability to fill in for van Persie.

If Chamakh is not producing for Arsenal they will turn to Bendtner, which is unlikely to please many of the club’s supporters. The highly touted Dane has never hit his stride this season and doesn’t fit the team as well as van Persie or Chamakh. A big player who is very physical, but not the fastest, Bendtner plays higher up the pitch than either of his fellow strikers and doesn’t link up with his midfielders as well. Bendtner has also been criticized for a sub-par work rate, something that doesn’t work well in the lone striker formation that Arsenal prefers.

There is no avoiding the gap that van Persie’s absence leaves in the Arsenal team. With his missing at least three weeks and possibly longer the pressure is on Chamakh to make good on his promise with Bendtner waiting in the wings. Arsenal have found themselves in a good position to make some headway in both the league and Champions League, but now they will have to do it without their star striker, although that isn’t too uncommon for the Gunners.