Following the departure of Cesc Fabregas in the summer, van Persie was appointed captain at Arsenal for the 2011-12 season.
He started the season by taking his tally of Arsenal goals to 100, becoming the 17th Arsenal player to reach that milestone.
On 16 October 2011, van Persie scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season after just 28 seconds of the match against Sunderland.
He went onto score a late winner from a free kick in the same match to give Arsenal a 2-1 victory.
The Dutchman hit a spectacular spell of goalscoring form with a hattrick in Arsenal's 5-3 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, winning the Premier League player of the month for October 2011.
He scored twice during the Champions League tie with Borussia Dortmund to help his side qualify for the knockout stage of the competition.
His exquisite volley from an Alex Song long ball during a game with Everton was one of the goals of the season and his tally for 2011 soon reached 35, just one short of Alan Shearer's record.
He rescued Arsenal during the FA Cup clash with Aston Villa by scoring two penalties in a 3-2 win, after Arsenal had gone 2-0 down, it was also his 120th Arsenal goal and equalled Dennis Bergkamp's record.
Van Persie got a hat-trick and two assists during a 7-1 win over Blackburn and also scored and made an assist for Theo Walcott in the 5-2 win over North London rivals Tottenham.
The week later he scored both goals in a 2-1 away win over Liverpool, one was scored in a similar fashion to the one against Everton earlier in the season.
He is currently the top goal-scorer in the Premier League with 27 goals and is also Arsenal's 8th all-time scorer with 129 goals for the club.