Benayoun concedes RVP reliance

Arsenal’s Yossi Benayoun has admitted his side have been over-reliant on skipper Robin van Persie for goals this season.

The Dutchman notched his 28th Premier League goal on Saturday against Stoke and has scored nearly half of the Gunners’ 66 league strikes this season.

Benayoun feels the other members of Arsene Wenger’s side need to start contributing more but conceded it is too late in the season to make a telling impact.

“We have two games to go and I concede we have been over-relying on him in terms of goal-scoring but that’s difficult to change now until the end of the season,” Benayoun said.

The Israeli international has likened the situation to Fernando Torres’ free-scoring form during his time on Merseyside and believes the two players are very similar.

Benayoun also feels that Arsenal must do their utmost to keep the Dutchman at the club for the foreseeable future amidst rumours of interest from Real Madrid and Manchester City.

“I was lucky to play with some of the great strikers in my career and Robin at the moment is one of the best in the world,” he said.

“It was the same for me when I was with Fernando and he was on fire at Liverpool, scoring a lot of goals. For me, they are at the same level – two of the best strikers in the world. They are very similar because you can look at their record of scoring goals.

“Fernando at Liverpool, he scored in a lot of goals, especially when he had a player like Stevie Gerrard playing behind him helping him.

“With Robin, we know we must give him the ball to the right place and he will score like he has done all season. Everyone knows it’s important to keep him. Each club wants to keep their best players and Robin is our best player.”