Man United players mob van Persie after he scored on his home debut

BBC

Robin van Persie scored his first goal for Manchester United as they edged out Fulham in an Old Trafford thriller.

Three first-half goals from van Persie, Shinji Kagawa and Rafael should have made the game safe, but lax defending nearly cost the home side, reports the BBC.

Fulham took the lead early through Damien Duff then, on the hour, an awful mix-up between defender and goalkeeper resulted in a Nemanja Vidic own goal.

United had to soak up the pressure, but prevailed for the hard-fought win.

Deep into injury time Wayne Rooney, who started the game on the substitutes bench, suffered a deep gash to his right knee after a clash with Hugo Rodallega, and the England man had to be stretchered from the field.

And at Villa Park, Everton continued from where they stopped on Monday night as Steven Pienaar, Marouane Fellaini and Nikica Jelavic all scored as Paul Lambert suffered a nightmare first home league game in charge of Aston Villa.

Pienaar's delightful 20-yard finish set Everton on their way before they doubled the lead after Shay Given's mistake allowed Fellaini to score.

Everton added a third before half time when Jelavic scored from close range.

Villa, who had Ciaran Clark sent off for a foul on Jelavic, grabbed a consolation through Karim El Ahmadi.

In other games, West Brom scored a late equaliser to deny Andre Villas-Boas his first victory as Tottenham boss in a 1-1 draw, Norwich played a 1-1 draw with QPR, Wigan apparently did not miss their former Nigerian star, Victor Moses beating Southampton 2-0 and in the early kick off West Ham hammered Swansea 3-0.

Rain forced the postponement of the game between Sunderland and Reading while the match of the day between Chelsea and Newcastle is a late kick off.