Arsenal produced another strong display to comfortably see off Bodo/Guilmet in the Europa League at the Emirates.
Striker Eddie Nikitia reacted to poke in the opener when Kieran Tierney’s powerful effort came back off the post.
Fabio Vieira crossed to put Rob Holding ahead for a second before the Portuguese made it 3-0 late on.
Mikel Arteta’s side have won four matches in a row in all competitions and topped their Europa League group as well as leading the Premier League.
They looked like a team brimming with confidence despite Arteta making eight first-half changes to beat rivals Tottenham in the north London derby at the weekend.
Nikitia, who also scored in the 2-1 victory over Zurich in September, came into the team and was a threat.
He deserved his goal when he pounced on the rebound from Tierney’s strike – he had already curled it inches wide and teed up Vieira for his effort which hit the crossbar on 10 minutes.
Vieira was also impressive, going close on several occasions as well as providing quality service for the holding goal and scoring himself when he finished off a brilliant Gabriel Jesus move.
Captain Granit Xhaka hit a free-kick over the bar and another shot was saved by goalkeeper Nikita Heikken as Arsenal could have easily added to their tally.
Norway’s Bodo/Gulmt grew into the game in the second half and posed a threat but Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner was under-tested and lacked clinical edge.
There were signs though that Arsenal will need to be at their best again when they travel to Norway for the second meeting next week, as Arteta called for more consistency afterwards.
“I’m very happy with the win, six points and a clean sheet. But we lacked communication between the players, we lacked consistency and dominance throughout the game,” he told BT Sport.
“There were eight changes, you could feel it. In the last third we looked very dangerous, the goals we scored were good.
“Some players, you could see their intensity was different, not enough exposure in terms of minutes, so we had to make changes.”
With two wins from as many group games so far, Arsenal now top Group A with two points over PSV Eindhoven, who face them on October 20.
