Arsenal vs Blackburn: Gunners Mix the Old with the New in Thorough 7-1 Rout

After Saturday's wildly entertaining 7-1 victory over visiting Blackburn Rovers had come to a close, talismanic Arsenal forward Robin van Persie found himself with 123 goals for the club.

A fitting mark, considering that on this day, it was as easy as 1-2-3 for the Gunners.

After a harrowing January, in which the club managed only two wins from six (all competitions,) a stretch which saw them drop three straight league matches before slumping to a 0-0 draw away to Bolton on Wednesday, this was the response needed to pump life back players and fans alike.

On Saturday, in spite of the bitter, invasive cold at the 1 p.m. kickoff (four inches of snow were expected to hit the capital later that evening) which had every fan shown on TV looking like an endorsement for a winter catalogue, Arsenal fired into life early on.

Just 80 seconds into the match, Francis Coquelin, who got the start at right-back, picked up a poor clearance from Rovers midfielder Radoslav Petrovic on the right wing. He cut inside just before sending a clever flicked pass for Theo Walcott, who charged toward the end line before cutting his cross toward goal, where Robin van Persie was waiting to tap in from close range.

It was a mark of things to come. A goal facilitated by one of the new guard (Coquelin) and finished by a man (Van Persie) who was with the side during its last trophy-winning season in 2005. The circular nature of this game was just getting started.

The goal shot Van Persie into 10th place all-time in the Arsenal record books (121), moving one ahead of compatriot and Gunners legend Dennis Bergkamp.

The defending from Blackburn was poor, as it would be all match. Why they allotted such space to the Premier League's leading scorer escaped me, but I certainly wasn't going to complain.

Arsenal were exerting their influence in midfield, and through 12 minutes boasted 80 percent of the possession. Blackburn hadn't yet mounted an attack on goal.

Then, for a moment, it looked as if all the negativity from the previous weeks was set to resurface.

Rovers midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen leveled the fixture at 1-1 in the 32nd minute, when his excellent left-footed free kick, won off an ill-advised challenge from Laurent Koscielny 23 yards from goal, gave keeper Wojciech Szczesny no chance other than getting a fingertip to a ball that was always destined for the upper 90.

It was the first clear chance for the visitors, and they'd pounced upon it with predatory instinct. Gunners fans worldwide were left shaking their heads ruefully, wishing they could say the same about their side, which hadn't won a league game in the new calendar year and had squandered chance after chance midweek against Bolton.

But then, something strange happened. That iconic clock, the one that used to reside at Highbury but now sits proudly atop the south end of the Emirates, must have pulled a Benjamin-Button-like trick, and turned back the years. Maybe it was the cold that did it, maybe it was fortune glancing favorably upon the north Londoners again. Either way, it worked wonders.

In the 38th minute, Arsenal scored a goal that looked plucked from the annals of history—the kind to make even the most realistic fan suffer a bout of nostalgic ache. The fluid passing build-up, the inch-perfect four-player-splitting pass in behind the defense (from the terrific Alex Song), the low cross toward goal (Walcott again), and the cool finish from the loosely-marked Van Persie (again).

It was a move that was river-esque in its coursing nature. It was deadly. It was the Arsenal of old. Up 2-1, the Gunners would never look back.

Just two minutes later (40'), 18-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been so impressive of late, got in on the goal-scoring act with his first-ever league goal for Arsenal.

Van Persie dropped into a central-lying role and did brilliantly to hold up play before picking out the former Southampton winger, who was making a well-timed run across the middle.

Oxlade-Chamberlain took the ball in his stride, and with the cool of a 10-year veteran skipped past keeper Paul Robinson before slotting home with his right to make it 3-1.

Defender Thomas Vermaelen nearly made it four for the hosts in first-half stoppage time (45+1'), but his close-range left-footed volley off a Mikel Arteta left-footed cross caromed off the post.

When the whistle blew to end the first period, Arsenal were justly cheered off the pitch from the supporters brave enough to endure the adverse conditions.

After a week in which a fan group had threatened to place bin bags over empty seats in protest of the club's direction and raising of ticket prices before the season, this was exactly the tonic needed to assuage frayed levels of patience.

Arsenal shifted into an even higher gear in the second half, with Arteta resuming the scoring in the 51st minute on a half-volley from the edge of the penalty area, which took a deflection on its way into the back of the net. It was the Spaniard's third goal in three games against Blackburn this season.

In the 54th minute, the Ox got his second. After a mazy run from the ubiquitous Walcott picked out Oxlade-Chamberlain with a pass across goal, the left winger used his first touch to slide the ball onto his right foot, erasing his defender in the process, and then fired a low shot past Robinson into the left corner.

When Van Persie got his third-ever hat-trick for the club in the 62nd minute to make it 6-1, you felt sure that you'd stepped back in time. This was the 6-1 win over Blackpool from last season, or the 6-2 romp over Blackburn prior to that. When had we last seen this sort of thoroughness in victory from the club?

But then, just in case you'd doubted the historic notions of the day, Thierry Henry came on as a substitute and scored, appropriately enough, in the 93rd minute. It was the sort of close you'd expect from a Hollywood romcom. Perfect, like life so rarely is.

Robin van Persie had a chance to take the glory himself and add a fourth goal to his daily docket, but the Dutchman instead chose to feed Henry with a pass across the penalty area. From that distance, the old Henry resurfaced.

He unleashed a side-footed effort out of yesteryear which, after taking a deflection, bounced into the back of the net. 7-1, and the game couldn't have been wrapped up in a better manner.

There are those who might say that this was nothing more than a blip on the flatline of the season's monitor.

But I'd like to think differently.

This was a day in which Arsenal reached back into the dominating displays of seasons past and, with new cast members littered throughout the side (Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain), fired past a Rovers side that despite its precarious position in the league standings had beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford and drawn away to Everton in recent weeks. Pushovers, they are not.

Gael Givet getting his marching orders for a dangerous two-footed tackle on Van Persie in the minutes before halftime certainly didn't help the visitors' cause, but when faced with an Arsenal side in this sort of mood, nothing really could.

I'd felt that this match would prove to be a barometer for the season; a climactic event of sorts. Arsenal could either continue on their recent stretch of irrelevance, or rocket back into life.

They chose the latter option, and forced their season's script onto a track redolent with positivity.

That smile you saw from Arsene Wenger after Henry sealed the scoring with the eighth goal of the day said it all.

If only for a moment, all was well in the Arsenal camp. Just like in years before.