RvP: Surrounded By Champions

Robin van Persie insists he’s loving life at Old Trafford and believes he’s “surrounded by champions” at Manchester United.

The Dutch striker netted his 18th and 19th goals of the season in the Reds’ 4-0 win at Wigan Athletic on New Year’s Day, a result that helped United maintain a seven-point lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League table.

“This is a special team,” he told MUTV. “Everybody wants to help each other. Everybody's keen for everyone to score. Defenders are working their socks off for the midfielders, the midfielders are working for the strikers... everybody wants to run and everybody has one target in their mind.

“We have to look at it game by game but everybody wants to be champions. I feel that I'm surrounded by champions. They know how to win and that makes it really easy for me.”

Against Wigan, van Persie and Javier Hernandez netted two goals each in a game the Dutchman lit up with a number of sublime touches. Best of all was his first goal – a calm finish after he’d wrongfooted the Latics defence with a breathtaking dummy.

“[Javier and I] scored two goals each and he gave a really good pass for my first goal. It was a good goal because every single touch was the right touch, in my opinion.

“The first one was a little behind me and I had to drag it onto my left foot. That was a good touch. Then I waited for the guy to slide in, had a good touch inside and then a quick finish. Three touches but all good touches.”

Van Persie’s second was rather easier and arrived on a plate for the Dutchman following unselfish work by substitute Danny Welbeck inside the penalty area.

That goal – United’s fourth – capped a ruthless performance by the Reds against a Wigan side that slumped to defeat by the same scoreline at Old Trafford back in September.

“It was a very good performance we scored the goals at the right time,” van Persie said. “We've played Wigan twice this year and won 4-0 both times, so that's good for goal difference.

“Everybody's helping each other and everybody wants to share the goals. Look at the last goal – Danny wanted to give the ball to me so I could score. Everybody's like that. I'm like that, Chicha is like that... everybody wants to share the goals and that, in my opinion, is the way to score heaps of goals.

“Hopefully we can keep it going. We’ve had a couple of games where we've had high scores but we want to score even more goals because that could be vital come the end of the season.”