van persie and youngsters 2004

Welcome to this week’s installment of the Classic Shot.

As the Gunners prepare for their Asia Tour in this new pre-season, today’s classic image is of exactly nine years ago during Arsenal’s 2004 pre-season.

The first face you may notice is that of a certain Dutchman who had just arrived from Feyenord but this historic training session in July 2004 was Van Persie and several others’ first run-out in the presence of Arsene Wenger.

Other youngsters who were then taking lessons about the Arsenal life were the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Sebastien Larsson, Matthew Connolly, Jose Antonio Reyes, Jermaine Pennant and Johan Djourou.

This pre-seas0n was also a time for most of these boys to be starstruck as they met ‘the Invincibles’ who had conquered the Premier League only two months ago in May 2004.

Now think of how each player’s career turned out to be…

Be the first to receive breaking news about Arsenal!