The path to becoming a football legend began with being ousted from Carrington by Manchester United.

Before Lin Yi meets Robben in the Champions League semi-final, he will first face another tough opponent, Arsenal's star striker, the Dutchman Robin van Persie.

Like Lin Yi, Van Persie achieved fame at a young age, and Van Persie even debuted at an even younger age.

As early as the 2001-02 season, 17-year-old Robin van Persie made his mark in the Eredivisie for Feyenoord and won the 2002 Best Young Player award from the Dutch Football Association.

After arriving at Arsenal, he was seen as Dennis Bergkamp's successor. Under the tutelage of Wenger and Henry, Van Persie gradually adapted to the pace of the Premier League.

With Reyes's decline in form and Bergkamp's official retirement, Van Persie gradually grew into a key player for the team.

In the summer of 2007, Henry transferred to Barcelona, ​​and Wenger completely promoted 24-year-old Van Persie to the core striker position. He and the equally young Fabregas supported half of the Gunners' attack.

This season has been a breakout season for Van Persie. After Fabregas defected to Barcelona, ​​Van Persie, wearing the captain's armband, has completely transformed into the Flying Dutchman.

Besides being in top form, even luck seemed to be on Van Persie's side.

The injuries that had plagued him for the past few seasons have suddenly disappeared, allowing Van Persie to maintain a perfect attendance record for the season so far, a first for him since joining Arsenal.

Taking advantage of Lin Yi's six-match suspension for boxing Joey Barton, Van Persie surpassed Lin Yi in the 13th round of the league to become the top scorer in the Premier League, and has maintained his lead ever since.

So far, Van Persie has scored 26 goals in 31 league matches, slightly ahead of Lin Yi who has scored 25 goals.

Barring any major unforeseen circumstances, the race for the Premier League Golden Boot this season will be between Robin van Persie and Jerry Lin.

According to media reports, Robin van Persie and Lin Yi are fiercely competing for the PFA Player of the Year award.

The winner of this award, voted on by all Premier League players, will be revealed at the PFA Awards ceremony at the end of April.

This means that the direct confrontation between Arsenal and Manchester City on April 8 will greatly influence the flow of the final vote, thus determining whether Lin Yi or Van Persie will receive this honor.

To show his support for his protégé, and with the team having essentially completed its top-four campaign and having been eliminated from other competitions this season with nothing left to play for, manager Arsène Wenger even rotated the squad in the last league match.

This led to their shock 1-2 away defeat to relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers.

The manager's goal is to keep the players in top form to meet the challenge from Manchester City.

Pellegrini, who also has a fatherly affection for his players, did his best to field his strongest 11 players at the Emirates Stadium, even though he couldn't rotate his squad during the busy schedule.

In the 4-2-3-1 formation, the goalkeeper is Joe Hart, and the four defenders from left to right are Clichy, Lescott, Kompany, and Zabaleta.

The midfield duo consists of Yaya Touré and Gareth Barry.

Lin Yi continued to play on the left flank of midfield, with David Silva in the center and Nasri on the right.

Aguero will play as the lone striker.

Arsenal's Wenger deployed a 4-3-3 attacking formation, determined to take advantage of their home ground to defeat Manchester City, although this would indirectly help his arch-rival Ferguson.

For the sake of his beloved protégé Robin van Persie, Wenger chose not to care.

Arsenal's goalkeeper is Szczesny, the Polish goalkeeper hailed as Lehmann's successor.

The right-back position is held by the defensively solid Frenchman Sagna, while the center-back position is held by Koscielny, also from France, who has just recovered from injury, alongside Vermaelen. Gibbs, who was promoted to the starting position after Clichy's departure, appears at the left-back position.

The midfield is anchored by Cameroonian player Alex Song, who is physically strong and excels in both attack and defense. In front of him are Czech player Rosicky, known as the "Mozart of the pitch," and Spanish technical midfielder Arteta, who just joined this season.

The right flank was given to Theo Walcott, who possesses historic speed, while the left flank was occupied by the technically gifted Israeli striker Benayoun.

In the center is one of the main protagonists of this match, Arsenal captain Robin van Persie, wearing the number 10 jersey.

It was thanks to this solid and highly capable starting lineup that Arsenal were able to break free from the turmoil at the beginning of the season and climb from 17th place to 4th in the league.

Besides the outside world's attention to this match, Lin Yi himself had been looking forward to this encounter with Arsenal.

When he first received Henry's technical skills, he made a promise to himself that he would give 100% of his energy when facing Arsenal, to pay tribute to his favorite predecessor.

Unfortunately, Henry's short-term loan contract had expired, and he returned to the New York Red Bulls across the Atlantic, unable to compete with Lin Yi, which Lin Yi found quite regrettable.

Besides Lin Yi, this match also has special significance for Clichy and Nasri, as it marks their first return to the Emirates Stadium since leaving Arsenal together last summer.

Clichy, who is low-key, is fine, but Nasri, with his eccentric personality, had a very unpleasant departure from Arsenal.

After former captain and midfield maestro Cesc Fabregas left, most Arsenal fans believed that Samir Nasri was the only choice to take over the responsibility of organizing Arsenal's midfield.

As a result, this guy was even more determined to leave for Manchester City's high salary than Fabregas.

Moreover, not only did he run away, but he also made several highly controversial remarks in public, such as publicly claiming that he was never an Arsenal fan, criticizing some Arsenal fans for lacking passion, and directly calling them idiots, showing the ruthless side of the Frenchman.

The English media did an excellent job of creating atmosphere for the match, offering a wide variety of perspectives from every angle.

Media outlets close to Manchester United are eagerly anticipating the Gunners' performance at home, hoping that the in-form Arsenal can successfully thwart Manchester City and contribute to Manchester United's title win.

Most mainstream media outlets are still focusing on the battle between Lin Yi and Van Persie for the top scorer title and the competition for the best player award.

Tabloid reporters are more interested in how Arsenal fans will punish Nasri, whom they see as a traitor, at the Emirates Stadium.

Why do tabloids always manage to capture people's hearts? Because gossip is human nature.

Although Lin Yi himself is in the eye of the storm, he has no past grudges or present conflicts with Arsenal, and Van Persie has never challenged him in public. The two are essentially strangers.

Therefore, Lin Yi's gossipy heart was completely focused on his teammate Nasri. He really wanted to see if Arsenal players and fans would treat Nasri more dramatically than Manchester United treated him.

However, when Lin Yi lined up in the players' tunnel, he was very disappointed with what he saw and heard; the tense atmosphere he had expected did not materialize.

Although most people don't really pay attention to Nasri, they just greet Krish.

However, two heavyweight players in the Arsenal squad, captain Robin van Persie and key defensive midfielder Alex Song, had a very pleasant conversation with Nasri.

The three men huddled together, whispering amongst themselves, occasionally punctuated by Nasri's hearty laughter and exclamations of surprise from Van Persie and Song.