Robin van Persie celebrates his stoppage time winner
Robin van Persie recovered from an embarrassing penalty miss to hit a hat-trick as Sir Alex Ferguson?s 1,000th league game in charge of Manchester United ended in a dramatic 3-2 victory at Southampton on Sunday.
The Red Devils twice fell behind at St Mary?s before being gifted the chance to level at 2-2 with 20 minutes remaining. Van Persie stepped up, but tried a showboating dink that was saved by Kelvin Davis.
That appeared to be costly as United entered the 87th minute still trailing 2-1, but it was time for Van Persie to go from villain to hero, stabbing home an equaliser before heading home the winner at a corner in injury-time.
Elsewhere, goals from summer signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla proved the difference as Arsenal grabbed a confidence boosting 2-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield.
Aston Villa were pointless in the Premier League heading into the weekend?s action, but they got their season up-and-running with a 1-1 draw at Newcastle.
Scores of the English Premier League
Liverpool 0 ? 2 Arsenal
Newcastle 1 ? 1 Aston
Southampton 2 ? 3 Man Utd
West Ham 3 ? 0 Fulham
Swansea 2 ? 2 Sunderland
Tottenham 1 ? 1 Norwich
West Brom 2 ? 0 Everton
Wigan 2 ? 2 Stoke
Man City 3 ? 1 QPR
