Arsenal striker Robin van Persie made history on Saturday as he became the 17th player to score more than 100 goals for the Gunners.

Speaking to Arsenal Player and BBC after the game, the Dutchman confessed that it was indeed a perfect afternoon as the Gunners played a very good game, secured all three points and he managed to score the two needed goals to join the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Alan Smith and Frank Stapleton.

Asked about making sure to secure the match ball at the end of the game, the striker smiled as he explained that he approached Mark Clattenburg at the end of the game with the referee accepting his request with the match ball to soon go in the Dutchman’s living room.

van Persie concluded by describing both goals and to also reveal what was said at the end of the first 45 minutes with the Gunners to now shift their focus to Wednesday’s Champions League game, at home, against Olympiakos of Greece.

After the game, the 28-year old said:

[Perfect afternoon?] Well the main thing is the three points but it’s a bit of extra special for me today because I scored my 100th goal for Arsenal, it’s a dream coming through so I’m really pleased and proud of that.

[The 17th player to do it?] If you look at the other players who scored over 100 goals, yeah, to be one of them is an honour.

[When I knew I could do it?] I started to think about it when I scored my 82nd, my 83rd goal, I was looking ahead and thinking ‘Oh, this might be possible’, so today is the day and it makes me proud, yeah.

[Getting the match ball?] I went straight to the ref and asked him kindly and he said, ‘Of course, you can have it’, it will get a nice place in my living room.

[The two goals?] The first one, I got a good pass through from Aaron Ramsey, had a good first touch and was then aiming for the shot, took an extra touch so the opponent was sliding through but couldn’t reach anymore, good goal.

Second one, really good run from Theo, fantastic pass, the only thing I had to do was to tap it in.

[What was said at half-time?] That we had to put pressure on them, everyone on the pitch and you could see that more often and once you do it as a team you see that you become stronger and grow into the game, which happened, we got more chances.

We got a bit lucky with their red card, always easier to play against ten obviously but this is what we spoke about last week, the bit of luck, I believe it’s something you get when you earn that and today we earned it.