Arsenal's last throw of the dice at Old Trafford

As if Arsenal have not suffered enough from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in recent weeks, they are now being speared by familiar suggestions that they are paying the price for their obsession with the beautiful game, as though dazzling football and success are somehow impossible bedfellows. If that were the case, the Real Madrid side of the Sixties and the 1970 Brazilian World Cup team would never have won anything.

Robin van Persie, whose long absence is a more viable reason for Arsenal's failure, if we can call it that before today's final throw of the Premier League dice against Manchester United at Old Trafford, insists that the team will never abandon what he considers their duty to entertain. And to those who might sneer at the end of the season that Arsenal played great football and won nothing, the Dutch striker says: "A lot of teams who did not play much good football will also end up with nothing.

"For me, the basic of football is to give enjoyment to people buying a ticket. That's where it starts. We are like 11 actors on a stage, we have to give enjoyment. This is the way we think football has to be played and we really believe that we can win things, big things, with this style of football. We have to stick with our own ideas and our own way of playing football, but sadly it's just not happening at the moment."

It was happening at Anfield when Theo Walcott's remarkable run set up Emmanuel Adebayor to make it 2-2, a scoreline that would have taken Arsenal through. But Van Persie could be talking about the Gunners' twin ambitions to win the Premier League and the Champions League this season when he says: "We had it in our hands and it just disappeared. The whole situation has changed because everyone expected to go through. Now we can only hope in the last five league games and that's that.

"Of course it's not easy to accept because we played tremendous football this season. Everyone was like, 'Ahhh, Arsenal are really playing well' - and we did and it's really hard to accept that it's out of our hands. But it's not finished yet. When you want to win things, there are three or four big periods in a season and this is the final one. The momentum is not really with us but it can change if we get three points at Old Trafford. If not, it is finished."

The other, more justifiable, criticism of Arsenal is that manager Arsene Wenger has failed to build a squad to match those of Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, one big enough to absorb the injuries which have put an unbearable burden on those forced to play in every game, particularly Cesc Fabregas, who rarely gets the rest he undoubtedly needs.

Van Persie says: "I don't think size is a problem because if you can play this kind of football for so much of the season, it is not about size, it's just our luck. It has been frustrating for me not to play more because I started the season with these fantastic ambitions and I have played only 20 games.

"We have missed Tomas [Rosicky] because he is a fantastic player and of course, Eduardo. What happened to him was hard to take because it was so useless, so stupid and of course it affected all the squad."

After the lacerating nature of Arsenal's exit on Tuesday, a game at Old Trafford five days later seems like cruel and unusual punishment. But for footballers, like actors, the show never stops and Van Persie describes today's encounter, coming so soon after Anfield, as "like a bonus or something".