Icons will be conducting an exclusive signing session with Arsenal captain and talisman Robin Van Persie this week. One of the deadliest strikers in the world, we couldn't be happier to have the sensational Dutchman on board. Pre-order signed shirts, boots and photos now and have them in time for Christmas.

Arsenal's Robin Van Persie is blasting his way into the record books. With 31 goals in 29 Premier League games in 2011 – including ten in his last five – the masterful Dutchman is closing in on Alan Shearer's record of 36 goals in a calendar year. 

Van Persie is averaging 1.07 goals per game in 2011. No other player in Premier League history has sustained such a high rate of goalscoring over a full year. Indeed, back when Shearer set the record in 1995, his goals came at the lower rate of 0.87 per game. The same applies for Thierry Henry's 34-goal haul in 2004. In other words, what we are witnessing from the rampant Van Persie is unheard of in the Premier League. Statistically, the 28-year-old can claim to be the best striker the Premier League has ever seen.

Form is temporary but Van Persie – who inherited the Arsenal captaincy from the departed Cesc Fabregas this summer – has maintained this level of performance for nine months now (discounting the close season). This is not simply a man in form; this is a man cementing his status as one of the best players in the world. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has always seen Van Persie as the eventual successor to fellow Arsenal and Holland legend Dennis Bergkamp. It is now clear the comparisons are justified.

Van Persie is a graceful player, but the deft touches and subtle movement are complimented by utterly devastating finishing. Van Persie is a master of both power and finesse, and a frequent scorer of stunning goals. His game is varied and unpredictable, and although predominantly left-footed, his right foot – or "chocolate leg", as he affectionately terms it – has become an equally dangerous weapon in recent seasons.

Wenger brought Van Persie to Arsenal from Dutch side Feyenoord at a cost of £2.75m in 2004. He can count that purchase among his very best. While precociously gifted, however, the young Dutchman was temperamental and injury-prone. But Wenger is a man who knows how to extract the absolute best from his players. The ill-discipline has been tempered, and a more mature Van Persie now seems to have put the worst of his injury problems behind him.

Injuries have certainly proved Van Persie's biggest hurdle, and his progress at Arsenal has been stalled on numerous occasions since 2004. Until now, every one of his seasons in an Arsenal shirt has been blighted by injury. He counts a broken toe, a fractured fifth metatarsal, a recurrent knee injury and a twisted ankle among his worst, and has never once finished a season with 30 league appearances. Arsenal will be hoping this is the year that changes.

Injury prevented him from scoring his first goal until January last season, but since the floodgates opened the goals have continued to flow. He finished 2010/11 with 18, equalling the record held by Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry for goals between the turn of the year to the end of the season. That outstanding run also included goals in nine consecutive away games, and he finished only two behind joint leaders Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez in the race for the Golden Boot, despite only featuring in 25 games.

This season he leads the scoring charts with 13 goals from 12 games. Since surpassing 100 goals for Arsenal in October he has added another 10. He's now left with seven games to score the six goals required to beat Alan Shearer's calendar year record.

Whether he manages it or not, 2011 is sure to go down in Premier League history as Robin Van Persie's year.

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A footballing legend on and off the pitch, Icons Legend of the Week #8 is Arsenal goalkeeping great Bob Wilson.

Between 1963 and 1974, Wilson amassed over 300 appearances between the sticks for Arsenal and won two caps for Scotland. Despite taking an early retirement at the age of 32, a long career in coaching, broadcasting and charity work has seen him become one of Britain's most popular and respected football personalities.

Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1941, Wilson was a late starter in professional football. Until Arsenal came knocking in 1963, he was in teacher training at Loughborough College while turning out as an amateur for Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves. When he was signed by Billy Wright's Arsenal for £6,500, Wilson became the first amateur to move clubs for a transfer fee.

He arrived at Highbury as understudy to Jim Furnell, and despite making his debut in October 1963, he had to wait over four years to become the Gunners' first-choice. Manager Billy Wright was replaced by Bertie Mee, and Wilson duly won his first trophy with Arsenal during the 1969/70 campaign, when Arsenal overcame Belgians Anderlecht to claim the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It was the Gunners' first piece of silverware since their 1952/53 Division One title.

Wilson was an unmovable figure in Arsenal's famous League and FA Cup double-winning 1970/71 season, during which he played every single first-team league and cup match and was named their player of the year.

1971 was also the year of Wilson's international call-up to the Scotland side. Eligibility rules had changed in 1970, allowing players to turn out for their parents' countries of origin. Wilson appeared for Scotland under Tommy Doherty against Portugal and Holland, but when Willie Ormerod took over as manager, he reverted to a Scottish-born number one, Bobby Clarke of Aberdeen, and Wilson was frozen out.

Wilson continued as Arsenal's number one until his retirement in May 1974. His involvement at the North London club was far from over, however, and after hanging up his boots he took on a coaching role. Wilson was the Gunners' goalkeeping coach for 28 years, working closely with fellow Arsenal greats Pat Jennings and David Seaman.

Wilson juggled coaching at Arsenal with a football broadcasting career, and after appearing as a pundit during the 1970 World Cup, he worked as a presenter with the BBC from 1974 to 1994 before moving to ITV. He has also devoted much of his time to charity work, and in 1999 he set up the Willow Foundation, to help people aged between 16 and 40 diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. In April 2011, Wilson, approaching 70-years-old, embarked on an incredible 500 mile 'Soccer Cycle' around every Premier League club in England. With the help of the likes of Lee Dixon, David Seaman and Les Ferdinand, the sponsored cycle raised more than £300,000 for the Willow Foundation.

A brave and supremely talented goalkeeper in his pomp, the Arsenal legend received an OBE in 2007, and remains a great authority and hugely respected commenter on the game today.

Likeable, passionate and devoted; modern football could use a few more characters like Bob Wilson.

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Have a look at our Bob Wilson collection here.

Trevor Francis' career-defining moment came in February 1979, when he was transferred from Birmingham City to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest for a seven-figure fee totaling just over £1m.

Trevor Francis will always be remembered as England's first million pound player, but that landmark transfer should not overshadow a long and successful career.

Francis joined Birmingham City as a schoolboy, and after making his debut in 1970 at the age of 16, he set about establishing himself as one of the most talented English players of his generation. He scored four goals in a single game before he had turned 17, and finished his first season in the Second Division with 15 goals from 22 games. The following season Francis was ever-present as the Blues won promotion to the First Division. 

Francis remained with the Blues for six seasons in the top flight, and by the time he left for reigning champions Forest in 1979, he had scored a total of 133 goals in 329 games. Nimble, skilful and prolific; he remains the second-highest scorer in the club's history. He also played his way into the England set-up, making his debut under Don Revie against Holland in 1977.

In 1978 Francis left the Midlands and went on loan to the Detroit Express in the North American Soccer League (NASL). He scored 39 goals in just 38 appearances, and joined the likes of Franz Beckenbauer in the NASL first XI. He joined Forest on his return to the England, though he would return to Detroit for another loan spell in the summer of 1979.

That year Francis played a crucial role in Forest's famous European Cup win. Clough's boys came up against Swedish side Malmo in the final in Munich, and just before half-time Francis nodded home a John Robertson cross to put them in front. Forest held on to win 1-0, and match-winner Francis achieved legendary status. A giant picture of the moment he stooped to head the ball in to the net remains on display at Forest's City Ground stadium to this day.

Francis missed out on Forest's second consecutive European Cup win in 1980 with an achilles problem, and with injuries limiting his playing time at Forest, he was sold to Manchester City in 1981, this time for £1.2m. Injury problems persisted, but Francis still managed 12 goals in 26 league games at City and earnt a place in the 1982 England World Cup squad, where he scored twice before England's elimination in the second group phase.

Francis duly left England and joined Italian side Sampdoria for £700,000. He won the Coppa Italia in 1985 with Sampdoria before joining Atlanta. He impressed in Italy, and in 2008 England manager Fabio Capello hailed Francis as the best English player ever to have played in Serie A. But after managing just one goal in 21 appearances for Atlanta, Francis returned to Britain in 1987 with Scottish giants Rangers, managed by former Sampdoria teammate Graeme Souness. Later that year he signed for Queens Park Rangers, where he became player-manager in 1988, before taking on the same role at Sheffield Wednesday for the final four seasons of his playing career.

Francis guided Wednesday to an excellent third place finish in 1992, and led them to FA Cup and League Cup finals the following year. In 1994, however, he was sacked after a 13^th place finish. He hung up his boots that year at the ripe old age of 40. He stayed in management though, and took charge at his spiritual home of Birmingham City between 1996 and 2001, before taking the reins at Crystal Palace from 2001 to 2003.

In a playing career that spanned 23 years, Francis scored a total of 229 league goals in 623 appearances. He also won 52 England caps, scoring 12 goals.

For the million pound man, these are the numbers that really matter.