Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick as Arsenal recorded their first Premier League win of the year by thrashing Blackburn 7-1 at the Emirates Stadium here on Saturday.


Arsenal playersu00a0 celebrate a goal during Saturday's EPL match against
Blackburn in London.

There had been reports of supporters protesting against Arsene Wenger ahead of the game but there was very little to complain as Arsenal romped to their biggest win in all competitions since October 2007.

Morten Gamst Pedersen may have cancelled out Van Persie's opener but the Arsenal captain ended up completing a treble, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain added two goals, while Mikel Arteta and Thierry Henry also scored.

Rovers were not helped by Gael Givet getting sent off for a rash tackle on Van Persie, although they were trailing at that stage of the match.

Van Persie's goals moved Dennis Bergkamp out of Arsenal's top 10 leading goalscorers, with the Gunners skipper now on 123 strikes for the club.

2nd min: Robin van Persie opens the scoring.u00a0
38th min: Persie nets Arsenal's second.
40th min: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scores the third.
51st min: Mikel Arteta scores the fourth.
54th min: Alex makes it five for the Gunners.
61st min: Persie completes his hat-trick.
90th Min: Thierry Henry completes the rout

Other results:
' norwich 2-0 bolton
' qpr 1-2 wolves
' stoke 0-1 s'land
' wba 1-2 swansea
' wigan 1-1 everton