City beats Fulham, Arsenal gets encouraging win

Robin van Persie celebrates his hat-trick

Manchester City once again raised the bar for the champions Manchester United after a 3-0 victory over Fulham.

Sergio Agüero scored the opener 10 minutes after the start converting a penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner. The penalty was conceded by Chris Baird after a foul on Adam Johnson.

City doubled the lead after a own goal by Chris Baird when Adam Johnson tried to fire back across goal but it took a massive deflection off the hapless Chris Baird and give Schwarzer no chance in the Fulham goal.

Edin Dzeko scored the third goal with left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. The assist came from Sergio Agüero who weaved his way through the Fulham defence before laying it on a plate for Dzeko who finished past Schwarzer from 10 yards.

Arsenal record their biggest league win at the Emirates stadium after beating Blackburn Rovers 7-1 as the Gunners ended their r-matches winless streak in the league.

Robin van Persie overtook Denis Bergkamp in the scoring list with a hat-trick, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored his first two Premier League goals for the club and Thierry Henry, in the last minute of his final appearance at the Emirates, said goodbye with Arsenal’s seventh. “That is really something special,” said Wenger.

Arsenal took just 82 seconds to get the opener when Radoslav Petrovic's poor clearance was picked by the Arsenal right-back. He worked the ball to Walcott who had plenty of time to pick out Van Persie for the simple finish.

Despite Arsenal dominating the early exchanges, Blackburn managed to equalise after 31 minutes, when Morten Gamst Pedersen hit an excellent free kick that went in the top corner.

Seven minutes later Arsenal went into the lead. Alex Song threaded a precise pass between Martin Olsson and Gael Givet for Walcott to sprint onto and the England winger again picked out Van Persie in space for the tap in.

Walcott was again heavily involved in the third goal. He cut inside and found Van Persie, whose fast-stepping footwork made him deliver a fine pass into the path of Chamberlain, who went coolly round Paul Robinson to finish.

After the break, the goals started flowing again. After 51 minutes Steven N’Zonzi could only head Van Persie’s corner to the edge of the box where Koscielny’s touch cushioned the ball for Mikel Arteta to score.

Three minutes later it was five. Walcott cut through some fairly insipid Blackburn defending on the right and laid the ball off for Chamberlain, who trapped and hit a low shot confidently past Robinson.

Van Persie then completed his hat-trick with another close range finish, this time after Coquelin had walked past Junior Hoilett on the right.

He was also selfless in helping Henry have a perfect Emirates send off. The veteran caught Grant Hanley on the ball and then checked with Van Persie running off him. The Dutchman could have taken it on and shot but instead found Henry whose shot deflected in off Scott Dann.