Throwback Thursday: Robin van Persie’s volley against Villa
It was the perfect ball for van Persie to bring down on the edge of the box, and move towards goal before firing off a shot.
Instead, as the ball dropped from the heavens, van Persie attempted the ludicrous. With a swing of his left boot, he sent a rasping volley crashing into the bottom right corner of the net. A ball over the shoulder, hit from half a field away, dispatched by a man who could do no wrong that year.
As the ball exploded past him, Villa keeper Brad Guzan couldn’t even comprehend the shot enough to dive at it. Instead, he seemed to resign himself to his fate with a shrug of his shoulders, as Old Trafford roared, and van Persie sprinted away, arm aloft, face awash with bemused glee.
Next. Wolves must brace for many Jimenez bids. dark
In what was Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season, there was no better goal to seal United’s twentieth title. Van Persie completed a first-half hat-trick that day, and finally won his first and only Premier League medal.
With one swing of his left boot, the transfer saga, the wait, the pain of years of unfulfilled potential, it all seemed worth it for Robin van Persie.