In England, Arsenal's Gunners went after their first English Premier League victory of the calendar year on Saturday. They took on Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates Stadium.
This one didn't go Blackburn's way from the very start. The club gave up a goal in the first two minutes off a poor clearance. Arsenal's Theo Walcott took the ball with room to work and squared for Robin Van Persie's scoring strike. The Gunners shot out to a 1-0 lead.
Blackburn managed to equalise after an Arsenal foul. Morten Gamst Pedersen fired a free-kick over the wall into the top corner. But Arsenal returned fire with back-to-back goals to lead 3-1 at half-time.
The hosts had their fourth right after the restart Mikel Arteta scored, then Walcott fired home the team's fifth. Van Persie got his third goal and Arsenal's sixth just after the hour mark. And Arsenal star Thierry Henry came onto the pitch at 68 minutes.
He's the team's all-time record marksman and added to his tally with his first League goal since he returned to the club. Henry scored in the 90th minute.
Arsenal marked its biggest win of the season and climbed from seventh to fifth in the EPL standings, 14 points behind league leader Manchester City.
英超第24輪開始本輪最早一場比賽的爭奪。阿森納在主場最終以7-1狂勝布萊克本，報了首循環輸球之仇。隊長范佩西上演帽子戲法，沃爾科特也完成助攻帽子戲法，張伯倫初次在英超賽場進球就獨中兩元，阿爾特塔也有一球進賬，亨利最后時刻錦上添花。維爾馬倫半場結束前擊中立柱。布萊克本一度將比分扳為1-1，后衛吉維特中場前因對范佩西鏟球犯規被紅牌罰下。阿森納取得2012年首場英超勝仗，排名暫時升至第五。