Evra sold on Robin long before derby

Patrice Evra knew from the moment Robin van Persie said sorry at Southampton that Manchester United had signed a class act.

Van Persie’s injury-time free-kick at Manchester City on Sunday repaid another chunk of the £24 million Alex Ferguson invested in the striker last summer.

With 14 goals to his name already, Ferguson’s judgment has already been proved sound, but it was at St Mary’s in August, in the aftermath of a 3-2 win in which van Persie had scored a hat-trick, that Evra discovered the forward’s stamp of class.