Robin van Persie made up for an embarrassing failure from the penalty spot by grabbing a hat trick with two late goals in Manchester United's dramatic 3-2 win at Southampton on Sunday, earning the English giants a second straight win in the Premier League.
In a fitting way to mark United manager Alex Ferguson's 1,000th league game in charge, Van Persie equalized in the 87th minute before heading home a corner in the second minute of injury time for his fourth goal since joining from Arsenal for $38 million US in the off-season.
Arsenal showed there is life after Van Persie when new signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored their first goals for the club in a 2-0 win over struggling Liverpool.
The loss leaves Liverpool rooted in the bottom three after the club's worst start to a season in 50 years, compounding its woes after a failure to add some muchneeded signings to the squad on Friday's transfer deadline day.
In the day's other match, Aston Villa earned its first point of the campaign with a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa, only being denied victory because of Hatem Ben Arfa's stunning second-half equalizer.
