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Premier League Results: Hat-trick hero Van Persie carries United to 74-1 win

"United are the in-play punter's best friend, and you simply cannot discount them when faced with a losing position."

There's in-play carnage at Southampton as Robin van Persie-powered Manchester United pull off a dramatic win on Sir Alex Ferguson's 1,000th match in charge

Manchester United were backed at 75.074/1 in-play on Betfair as Robin van Persie carried his new team to a classic come from behind win.

The Dutch master scored a hat-trick - backed at 26.025/1 to do so - and also missed a penalty as United twice came from behind to deny Southampton a stirring victory. The home side were lively throughout, going ahead twice and deserved something from the game.

But United are the in-play punter's best friend, and you simply cannot discount them when faced with a losing position. Two goals in the last four minutes took the Reds to their second win of the season and crushed in-running backers of the home side at 1.251/4. The 3-2 final score was backed at 50.049/1.

United are 3.1511/5 to win the Premier League. Van Persie is 4.03/1 to win another golden boot.

There was a win for a title rival in the day's early kick-off at Anfield as Arsenal won their first match of the campaign and kept their third consecutive clean sheet to boot.

In arguably their toughest fixture yet, the Gunners denied Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and co to reward backers of an away win to nil at 12.011/1 on Betfair.

Arsenal are 15.014/1 to win the Premier League and 1.774/5 for a top-four finish. Liverpool can be backed at around 5.04/1 to end the seaosn in the Champions League places.

In the day's other game, Aston Villa picked up their first point of the campaign after a 1-1 draw with Newcastle. Villa traded at a low of 1.75/7 before Hatem Ben Arfa scored a screamer to equalise.

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Lee Dixon: Walcott and van Persie to get the better of Dortmund

Champions League / Lee Dixon / 22 November 2011 / Leave a Comment

The pace man and the hitman. Theo Walcott congratulates Robin van Persie after they combine for another goal.

"This should be a pretty tight game between two sides who are probably quite evenly matched at this moment in time but Arsenal’s extra experience of these type of matches in this competition plus home advantage should get them over the line. Draw/Arsenal in the HT/FT market is also worth including in our portfolio of bets for this match."

Red-hot tipster Lee Dixon looks ahed to Arsenal's match against a confident Borussia Dortmund side. The Gunners should win and qualify for the knock-out stages but it won't be easy...

I'll do well to match my tipping effort at the weekend where all four of my recommended bets on Norwich v Arsenal won .

If you'd placed £10 on each you would have returned a profit of £91.50. But the good news is that with a third of the season gone, we've seen enough of this 2011-12 version of Arsenal to know what to expect of them. The key of course, is knowing how to profit from that knowledge.

Match Odds

If Arsenal had beaten Marseille a few weeks back like they should have, they would have been pretty much home and dry as regards making the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

But Arsene Wenger decided that captain, talisman and top scorer (he probably drives the team bus, too) Robin van Persie needed a rest and only gave him half an hour in that match. Without him, the Gunners never really got going and drew 0-0. They can't afford any more slip-ups here and I'd be amazed if RVP doesn't start this one, especially after scoring two more at the weekend (shall I mention I tipped that as well? No? OK).

Borussia Dortmund could be excused for really fancying their chances of causing an upset here and going into the final round of fixtures with it all to play for. After all, they're fresh from beating league leaders Bayern Munich at the weekend.

This should be a pretty tight game between two sides who are probably quite evenly matched at this moment in time but Arsenal's extra experience of these type of matches in this competition plus home advantage should get them over the line. Draw/Arsenal in the HT/FT market is also worth including in our portfolio of bets for this match.

Over/Under 2.5 Goals and Correct Score

In the last 13 matches Arsenal have played in all competitions, only twice has the over 2.5 goals barrier not been broken. Interestingly, those two 'anomalies' occurred against the same team - Marseille, whom Arsenal beat 1-0 in France before that aforementioned goalless draw. So we know that matches between those two produce low-scoring games but also that as a general rule Arsenal's games are high-scoring. That's hardly surprising.

In van Persie they have one of the most in-form strikers in Europe and the team continues to adopt an attack-minded philosophy. At the other end, they remain suspect. The goal they conceded away at Norwich was defending the likes of which I last saw in a school playground. I don't expect the floodgates to open because there's so much at stake in this match but 'overs' is a confident selection and 2-1 would be my idea of the most likely scoreline.

To Score

I'm not going to come up with any new and original ways of explaining why backing Robin van Persie to score is a good bet, other than to say: look at his scoring record in 2011 and his record in his last seven matches- ten goals no less. Back him again.

Theo Walcott was lively on Saturday and is due a goal, having created plenty of chances in recent weeks for others to score. He's available at [3.3] and looks a solid bet.

2 pts Back Arsenal to win @ [2.16]
1 pt Back Draw/Arsenal @ [6.0]
2 pts Back Arsenal to win 2-1 @ [10.0]
2 pts Back Over 2.5 Goals @ [1.96]
Back Robin van Persie to score at anytime @ 2.1
Back Theo Walcott to score at anytime @ [3.3]

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