Arsenal 3-0 Stoke City, by Douglas Beattie at Ashburton Grove

A delighted Arsene Wenger said “everyone had played well” in yesterday’s comfortable win over Stoke which moves the Gunners up to fifth in the table.

“We created chances and the speed of our game created problems for Stoke,” he said. “Going forward we were always dangerous.”

The home side wasted no time getting into their stride — Asmir Begovic in the Stoke goal had to save twice in the opening minutes first from Alexis Sanchez and then touching a Tomas Rosicky drive around the post.

From the resulting corner on six minutes Sanchez found Laurent Koscielny inside the box and the French centre-back coolly powered home his header for the opener.

Even the loss of full-back Mathieu Debuchy to a dislocated shoulder failed to knock the Gunners out of their impressive rhythm.

Begovic was forced into further saves, notably from Olivier Giroud, but was unable to stop Sanchez from notching his side’s second just after the half hour.

The impressive little Chilean won the ball back after an attempted one-two with Rosicky, cut inside and finished with a low drive.

The former Barcelona man had his second on 49 minutes, sending a free-kick through the Stoke wall and in off a post.

Potters manager Mark Hughes described Sanchez as “an outstanding player” and admitted his men had been “second best to a good Arsenal side” who were, he said, “a little bit too quick for us.”

Peter Crouch and Bojan Krkic tried to make things happen for the away side but were isolated figures up front throughout.

Theo Walcott, on as a sub for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, was then sent clear by Sanchez only to scuff his effort well wide.

It hardly mattered, for Sanchez or Arsenal — this was an afternoon in which they dominated from first to last.