Premier League - Van Persie double floors 10-man Bolton



Robin Van Persie scored twice as Arsenal overran 10-man Bolton 3-0 to complete a one-sided Premier League win at the Emirates Stadium.

The home captain set Arsenal on the road to three much-needed points when he dribbled past Fabrice Muamba to thump the ball beyond Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen from eight yards out on 47 minutes.
Bolton's day gradually went downhill from that point onwards as David Wheater was red carded on 54 minutes for a tug on the shirt of Theo Walcott as he raced in on the visiting goal.

With Arsenal players lining up to take shots almost at will at the under-siege Jaaskelainen, Van Persie finally added the second goal of the match on 71 minutes as he steered the ball home from Walcott's telling cross.
Bolton had long since given up the ghost of rescuing a point from a pretty hopeless situation, but were made to suffer one last time as Alex Song managed to outfox Darren Pratley in the final minute before whacking a shot beyond the unprotected Jaaskainen, who was left with no chance.

While Arsenal move up to 12th in the table with seven points, Owen Coyle's Bolton end the afternoon bottom of the table with only three points from their opening six games.
They have now lost 16 goals in six games, scoring only eight times.
Even though they were handicapped quite considerably by the loss of Wheater, they endured a pretty barren spell throughout the day.

Bolton had not won away to Arsenal since a 2-1 victory in old Division One on January 13, 1962. That grim record was never likely to alter with the technically superior Van Persie producing the sort of form Arsenal fans crave having lost Cesc Fabregas and Sami Nasri in recent times.

Home goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was called into action only twice in the match to save from Pratley early on before diving to halt a shot from Chris Eagles in the visiting side's only attacking move of any real note in the second period.

Arsenal could easily had won by more with Jaaskelainen saving efforts from Van Persie, Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey as Bolton somehow crept off the park at full-time without shipping more goals.