Van Persie the hero for Arsenal again

by Tony Cuddihy , 23 November 2011

Arsenal secured top spot in the Champions League Group F with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening.


Robin van Persie - who else? - scored both of the goals for Arsene Wenger to continue his staggering run of form.

Dortmund stole Wojciech Szczesny's clean sheet with a late goal from Shinji Kagawa but the Gunners were good value for their win and become the first Premier League through to the last 16.

The second half was in stark contrast to the first, which did not contain a single shot on target from the home side. Theo Walcott was in fine form, producing one excellent cross that was nearly converted by van Persie, but Arsenal were toothless.

Dortmund, meanwhile, were rocked by early injuries to Sven Bender and Mario Gotze.

The deadlock was finally broken just after the break when Alex Song produced a sublime piece of skill to drift past two Dortmund defenders and cross for his captain to head home.

Gervinho should have made it 2-0 when released by van Persie but hesitated at the critical moment, but Arsenal secured the points five minutes from time when Mikel Arteta's corner was flicked on Thomas Vermaelen and van Persie was left with the simplest of finishes.

It wasn't all good news for Arsenal as poor defending allowed Lewandowski to play in Kagawa to score, but that was made irrelevant as the referee blew the final whistle within seconds of the German side's goal.

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Pos
Team P W D L +/- PTS
1.
Man City
38
28
5
5
64
89
2.
Man Utd
38
28
5
5
56
89
3.
Arsenal
38
21
7
10
25
70
4.
Tottenham
38
20
9
9
25
69
5.
Newcastle
38
19
8
11
5
65
6.
Chelsea
38
18
10
10
19
64
7.
Everton
38
15
11
12
10
56
8.
Liverpool
38
14
10
14
7
52
9.
Fulham
38
14
10
14
-3
52
10.
West Brom
38
13
8
17
-7
47
11.
Swansea
38
12
11
15
-7
47
12.
Norwich
38
12
11
15
-14
47
13.
Sunderland
38
11
12
15
-1
45
14.
Stoke
38
11
12
15
-17
45
15.
Wigan
38
11
10
17
-20
43
16.
Aston Villa
38
7
17
14
-16
38
17.
QPR
38
10
7
21
-23
37
18.
Bolton
38
10
6
22
-31
36
19.
Blackburn
38
8
7
23
-30
31
20.
Wolverhampton
38
5
10
23
-43
25
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