Arsenal 3 West Brom 0

Arsenal swept West Brom aside as the Baggies slipped to a routine defeat at the Emirates Stadium.

But Roy Hodgson's men produced an improved performance at time after last weekend's tame home loss to Liverpool.

However, they lacked creativity in the final third as they failed to test Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and found the in-form home side in a clinical mood.

First-half goals from Robin van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen and a Mikel Arteta strike after the break sealed the game.

In a game of little goalmouth incident aside from Arsenal's goals, the hosts went ahead on 22 minutes when a fine pass from Aaron Ramsey freed Theo Walcott on the right.

His cross-shot was blocked by goalkeeper Ben Foster but the in-form van Persie pounced on the rebound, to poke home his 11th goal of the season.

It was 2-0 on 38 minutes when van Persie helped an Alex Song pass across the face of goal and Vermaelen, who had ventured forward from centre-back, crept unnoticed into the box and finished from 10 yards.

The Baggies pressed the Gunners with energy but, ultimately, failed to register a shot on goal before the interval.

The survived a scare on 68 minutes, when Foster did well to save a shot from Song from a Gervinho pull-back.

But it was 3-0 on 74 minutes when Arteta finished off a fabulous Arsenal move involving van Persie and Tomas Rosicky.

Van Persie's neat lay-off allowed the Spaniard to sweep home a simple shot.

West Brom looked a little more threatening after the break but the closest they went to a goal was when substitute Somen Tchoyi had a shot blocked by Vermaelen, after a clever pass from James Morrison.

Steven Reid saw a header saved by Szczesny from a corner while Graham Dorrans, who had replaced the injured Paul Scharner, also sent a couple of shots just wide.

The Baggies had to cope without the injured Peter Odemwingie, while reigning Player of the Year Youssouf Mulumbu was surprisingly dropped after a disappointing start to the season.