Van Persie leads Premier League scoring chart

London, April 23 (IANS) Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa leading Manchester United to an unprecedented 20th Premier League title. His three goals in the first half also took him to top of the scoring chart, one ahead of Liverpool's Luis Suarez.

Van Persie has 24 league goals while Suarez has 23. The Uruguayan could further lose ground as he is likely to get penalised by the FA for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic in Sunday's 2-2 draw between the two teams.

Following are the leading scorers in the English Premier League after Monday's match:

Robin van Persie (Manchester United): (24 goals)

Luis Suarez (Liverpool): (23)

Gareth Bale (Tottenham): (18)

Michu (Swansea City): (17)

Demba Ba (Newcastle/Chelsea), Benteke (Aston Villa): (15)

Rickie Lambert (Southampton): (14)

Dimitar Berbatov (Fulham), Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich): (13)

Santi Cazorla (Arsenal), Edin Dzeko (Manchester City), Frank Lampard ( Chelsea), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United): (12)

Jermaine Defoe (Tottenham), Marouane Fellaini (Everton), Fletcher (Sunderland) , Olivier Giroud (Arsenal), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Theo Walcott (Arsenal): (11)

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Kone (Wigan), Le Fondre (Reading), Juan Mata (Chelsea): (10)