Van Persie took his tally to 19 for the season with a superb left-foot strike on 70 minutes which proved enough to send Arsenal back into the top four of the Premier League. Everton had defended well and looked dangerous on the break, but were undone by a moment of pure genius, which was applauded by Arsenal's record goalscorer Thierry Henry in the stands as the club celebrated their 125th anniversary. Wenger said: "Robin got us a goal which was at the moment of the game where we struggled a little bit to create chances. "He delivered something special and three important points." Wenger admitted there was "not much more to say" about the superb form of his captain, who has cracked more than 30 goals in 2011. "Robin has scored an exceptional goal, he said himself he was not in his best of days, but what is important is you are efficient," Wenger added. "That is what it is to be professional, when you do not feel the greatest." Arsenal started well, with both Theo Walcott and Gervinho proving a handful for the Everton defence. "Overall we created many chances in the first half and the players were a bit disappointed at half-time that we did not score," Wenger said. "In the second half Everton played deeper and gave us less room, we lacked a bit of team pressure to get them out of position. "We needed something special. I was always confident we would score, but I am very pleased we kept composure and did not give a goal chance away." Arsenal legends including Frank McLintock, Charlie George, David O'Leary, George Graham, Robert Pires, Jens Lehmann and Henry - who on Friday had a bronze statue of him unveiled outside the ground - all helped make up a guard of honour as van Persie led the current side onto the field. And Wenger believes his side dealt with the whole occasion well. "This was an historic day for us so it's not easy to keep the focus right with so many people here and the celebration before the game with everybody coming back," he said. "But we were a bit historical as well because we won 1-0!" Arsenal have now won seven of their last eight Premier League games to move above Chelsea, who play leaders Manchester City on Monday, into the top four for the first time this season. Wenger said: "We have to continue. The spirit is there, the consistency is there now, our focus is there, so we will see how far we can go." After riding out the early Arsenal pressure, Everton had done a decent job of containing the home side before van Persie's moment of pure class settled matters. Toffees boss David Moyes paid tribute to the Dutchman. "It was a terrific finish, a really good goal which beat us," he said. "But we can't kid ourselves because we were fortunate to go into half-time at 0-0. "Then when they scored the goal, we looked the more likely to score, we had grown in confidence and weathered a lot of what Arsenal had thrown at us. "We had some great recovery defending with guys getting back in, but we just lacked that bit of quality."
