It was three years ago, in the summer of 2007. Ajax and Arsenal played each other in the Amsterdam Tournament and Thomas Vermaelen was too eager to impress his manager, resulting in a small fight with Robin van Persie.

With a big smile on his face, the centre back was speaking to Arsenal TV Online about what he remembers of that day, a game which the Gunners were dominating in the first half and with Ajax’s manager asking his players to step it up a gear and show more determination, with the Belgian following the instructions to the letter.

The 24-year old said how he challenged the Dutchman to win a long ball in the air with the striker ending up hurt on the floor, only to stand up seconds later to face his now team-mate at Arsenal. Vermaelen added how it is strange how so many people at Arsenal remember the episode but how they all now laugh about it.

Vermaelen concluded by saying how he now gets along well with his colleague as they both speak Dutch, understand each other clearly and also saying how van Persie is very helpful to him in England.

On the “fight”, he said:

At that moment we played a game against Arsenal and in the first half they were playing very well and we were running after the ball and our boss said ‘come on, you have to fight more and mark tightly’, and there was a long ball and I wanted to have a good header.

Maybe it was too hard for Robin, he was angry and there was a small fight. Other people here at Arsenal all remember that situation, it’s strange.

[We now get along] very good. He’s Dutch, we both speak Dutch so we can speak very easily. He’s a very good guy, really helpful to me here in England.