Van Persie was right to celebrate vs Arsenal

Robin van Persie’s reaction to his winner over Arsenal has caused the biggest furore over a celebration since Phil Brown’s provocative gesture after beating me in a particularly gruelling game of Battleships. It’s all very well him saying he was just emulating his wrestling hero, HHH, but it was completely inappropriate in a living room scenario and he knows only too well that he still owes me an apology.

As far as I’m concerned, RVP was right to celebrate even if it was a goal against his old club. I’ll never forgot the time my looping header found the top corner and made the difference in a tight game and I knew it was my duty to those fans who’d enjoyed the goal to relish the moment. Admittedly the forward roll was probably a bit much for an own goal.

The Dutchman only made one major error. You need to make a good impression with your own fans and I was disappointed not to see Robin kiss the Manchester United badge. I fondly recall making my debut for Barnet and going at it like Leo and (a polyester) Kate. People thought that was going overboard for simply winning a corner but it’s important to take your chances when they come.

On another occasion I employed a tactic I learned watching tennis and headed for the stands to celebrate with my family after netting late on. Unfortunately I was only able to get my parents seats in row X and by the time I got back on the pitch we’d conceded twice. Still, family comes first and it was crucial I enjoyed such an important moment with them.

The Old Trafford celebration was not the only contentious footballing issue of the weekend. Ramires went down late on for Chelsea and many observers felt he’d dived to win a penalty. All credit to Jose Mourinho, his manager, who showed a lot of courage in concluding that it was a definite foul. It takes real guts to go against the grain and stick your neck on the line but the bossman was unafraid of giving his honest appraisal of the incident.

Friday in Lisbon sees the first leg of the World Cup play-off between Cristiano Ronaldo (with some Portuguese blokes) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (with some Swedish blokes). It is a real shame that this summer’s tournament will be without one of the two greats of the modern game but at least the loser will no doubt take the blow with characteristic humility and good grace.

Speaking of celebrations and Ronny, some of you might remember that early in his career the lad used to whip his top off after scoring. Eventually this was outlawed and players are now booked if they do this. It’s a little to known fact that I was actually the reason for this change in the rules. It might not seem like inciting the crowd when you’d got a body like Cristiano but my layers of overhanging fat bouncing in the breeze at Highbury were offensive enough for Graham Poll to contact UEFA and see the game change for the better.