Robin van Persie reacts to Anthony Martial scoring Man Utd’s first hat-trick in seven years

Seven years. That’s how long Manchester United were made to wait to see a player score a hat-trick.

Robin van Persie’s title-winning three-goal game against Aston Villa will forever live long in the memory, but it was sublime to see another Red Devil achieve the feat.

Credit to Anthony Martial for putting Sheffield United to the sword in such clinical fashion. That’s why he’s our number nine. That’s why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes in him so much.

The plaudits are all rightly heading Martial’s way right now, with Van Persie himself getting in amongst it. The Dutchman brilliantly reacted to Martial’s first Reds hat-trick on Twitter:

Once a Red, always a red. Van Persie knows what it means to win trophies with this club and he, like all of us, is a United fan.

For him to send this message to Martial must be extra motivation for United’s French forward. Now, it’s about the former AS Monaco man kicking on from here and taking his game up another level.

We all know he has the talent to go right to the very top. Now, we need to see it in action on a consistent basis. With Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba feeding him chances, he’ll never get a better opportunity.