By Fitzgerald Cecilio

Manchester United's costly acquisition of Robin van Persie has started to pay dividends as the striker tallied a hat-trick to lift the Sir Alex Ferguson-side to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Southampton Sunday at The Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium.

Van Persie tied the count at 1-1 in the 23rd minute with a fine strike that cancelled out Rickie Lambert's 16th-minute header but his weak penalty attempt in the 69th minute was easily saved by goalkeeper Kelvin Davis.

"I'm quite disappointed about this, to be fair. I ask a certain standard of my game and when that happens, you're 2-1 down, you can't take a penalty like that so it's me to blame. I don't know what went wrong, something went wrong big time so I need to work hard," said Van Persie, who earlier moved from Arsenal to United for a reported $36 million transfer fee.

The Saints took the lead for the second time 10 minutes through the second half when Morgan Scheiderlin scored his first goal for the club but Van Persie tied the count anew with a close-range goal from a Rio Ferdinand's miss with three minutes remaining in the game.

In the 19th minute, Van Persie scored his 100th Premier League goal to help United escape with a win on Ferguson's 1,000th game in charge of the Red Devils.

United has scored a second straight win after dropping its opening game to Everton for six points and a share of third place while Southampton has yet to score a win after three outings.

Meanwhile, Hatem Ben Arfa unleashed a spectacular shot in the 58th minute to earn Newcastle United a 1-1 home draw against Aston Villa. The Frenchman struck just before the hour-mark after Ciaran Clark had headed Villa into the lead midway through the first half.

Arsenal recorded its first Barclays Premier League victory of the season as goals in either half by two of their summer signings, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla, sealed a convincing win for Arsene Wenger's side.

The north Londoners took the lead on 31 minutes when Podolski finished off a one-two with Cazorla after racing fully 50 yards to receive his return pass to plant a left-footed drive past Pepe Reina.

The Spaniard made it 2-0 midway through the second half when he latched on to Podolski's pass to power in a low shot and leave Liverpool on one point from their three matches to date.

 

Van Persie Hat Trick Lifts Manchester United Past Southampton