The fact that van Persie started the match is also a tribute to the management skills of Wenger, as an armchair manager I would have been tempted to rest him. After all his performance midweek in Europe had not been that good, and there were elements in his game against Charlton that were reminiscent of it. I was beginning to fear that Robin would become a victim of the famous Henry stare, however, his wonder goal put a stop to that as the captain joyously joined in the jubilation. Wenger had got his selection right yet again, clearly Robin needed more games and his individual brilliance was needed. To mention that he could have had a hat-trick would be surly, surely the two brilliant goals he scored were enough? And it is a team game after all.

 This game marked 10 years of Wenger in the Premiership, but Charlton had not read the script, in my preview I had warned not to underestimate Dowie. Dowie did not let me down. Although Arsenal started brightly and had plenty of chances it was Charlton that scored first. It was that goal again, the one where Arsenal have the ball in the opponents half, the defence has a flat highline, the ball is suddenly lost, this time by Fabregas, and the defence finds itself chasing back with no cover from mid field. Mistakenly the defence thought they could play the offside trap but failed. Wenger was angry with the linesman at the time, but later admitted that in fact it had been offside. This was not a matter of individual failing but of a team error. Nonetheless there were times when the defence was sloppy, but in fairness to Gallas he was probably not feeling a 100% fit.

 But Arsenal were only a goal down for the 11 minutes, Hleb, who had a magnificent game, controlled the ball near the byline and flicked it to van Persie, with his second touch Robin put the ball beyond the reach of Carson. On a normal day this was a shot good enough for goal of the match, but this was not a normal day, it was Wenger's 10th anniversary and the best was yet to come.

 On the 50th minute Eboue provided yet another magnificent cross, he has obviously taken Henry's advice not to put the ball behind the goal; Emmanuel had picked out van Persie lurking outside the penalty area. However the ball arrived at about three feet from the ground, too low to head, and it appeared too high to control first time. None of this bothered RvP who leapt into the air to volley the ball like a rocket into the back of the net. One of the greatest Arsenal goals of all-time. Wenger has done it again, he has brought on a world-class player for which compared to Chelsea, or Manchester United, he has paid peanuts.

Some may want to argue whether Arsenal deserved this win or not, but the Gunner’s dominated possession and had 16 shots to Charlton's eight. The fact that Arsenal only got two goals was not just about the quality of the shooting, but the fact that Carson was almost certainly Charlton's man of the match. Meanwhile at the other end Lehmann was blameless for the Charlton goal, and in the dying minutes made a brilliant save to thwart an Addicks equaliser.

 Where would you rank van Percie's goal during Wenger's 10 wonderful years? You can debate the issue in the forum below this article.