• Premier League: Plays of the Day

Van Plonker to Van Perfection for Van Persie

Robin van Persie got too cute with his penalty © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• Match report: Van Persie makes amends after penalty shocker
  
• News: Van Persie: Penalty went wrong, big time
  

This season ESPN Goals is completely free. It's the first place to see every goal from every Premier League game, all season long

Van Plonker
What made Robin van Persie think he should do it? Playing for a new club, where you're still trying to make an impression, on what planet did it seem like a good idea to try a cocky dinked penalty with Manchester United 2-1 down to Southampton?

We all loved Andrea Pirlo's cheekiness from 12 yards against England at Euro 2012, so maybe Van Persie fancied a bit of that admiration. Whatever it was - and he said after the game that he changed his mind - Van Persie looked something of a plonker as his dink floated to Kelvin Davis, who stunted his dive to pad the ball around a post.

If only Ashley Young had been on the pitch to take it...

Van Perfection
The headlines were written: "Van Persie penalty shocker costs Sir Alex Ferguson in 1,000th game at Manchester United" (Imaginative headline we know). But then came the good side of Van Persie - the 'Arsenal' version if you like. Saving himself from an absolute mocking from the national papers, and the hairdryer treatment from Sir Alex, Van Persie picked himself up to net an equaliser in the 87th minute, and then a winner in the 91st.

The man of the match? Not according to Van Persie. That honour belonged to the 29-minute cameo of Paul Scholes.

Old-school transfer targets
You know things are a bit desperate at Liverpool when they are considering bringing back Michael Owen to ease their striker shortage. The shortage, of course, is entirely self-inflicted - but does Brendan Rodgers really need to compound that error by bringing in the injury-prone Owen? Just because he is available on a free, doesn't mean he is the right answer... In fact, if easy availability is the key criteria (which, let's face it, it definitely is) then why aren't other past Liverpool heroes being considered? Robbie Fowler still looks in reasonable nick, while you can't tell us Ian Rush wouldn't still get a goal given the right opportunity. If all else fails; anyone got Karl-Heinz Riedle's number?

Fresh blood is the best blood
Just hours before forgotten idol Van Persie was to embarrass himself with one of the worst penalties in Premier League history, Arsenal were busy getting a pretty welcome victory against Liverpool at Anfield thanks to goals from two of their new signings, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla. Their impact, particularly the Spaniard's all-round trickery, made it much easier for the Gunners faithful to forget about the treacherous Dutchman. Now, if the guy they signed to actually score goals by the bucketload, Olivier Giroud, could just get off the mark - well, that would be just gravy.

To Marseille with love
Before we forget about Joey, sorry, Joe Barton's existence for the next few months, it's just worth noting how Marseille fans decided to welcome the club's new loan signing on Sunday. At one end of the Velodrome (which probably technically doesn't have ends, because the one 'stand' circles the pitch entirely, but you get the gist) the fans unveiled a banner dedicated to Barton that read, in English, 'Welcome sweet and tender hooligan'. A Smiths reference and optimistic assessment of Barton's character in one banner (personally we'd have opted for 'Bigmouth strikes again', or 'Heaven knows we're miserable now' - but that's just us). This move might just work out well for all concerned...

Getting shirty
Nobody likes an 'in-joke'. You know, the type that you had to be there at the time of its inception to understand and, moreover, find funny. So nobody appreciated Newcastle's effort with their pre-match T-shirts, which read "Ryan Taylor over the wall". They were worn, of course, due to the defender's enforced absence due to injury, but why not just go with "Ryan Taylor, get better soon"?

Apparently it has something to do with a certain free-kick he scored, which retrospectively is incredibly funny so full marks to those Newcastle jokers involved.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.