Gunners unstoppable

Norwich 1 Arsenal 4

Premiership champions Arsenal handed new boys Norwich a footballing lesson at Carrow Road this afternoon as the Gunners marched on towards the landmark of 50 unbeaten league games.

Arsene Wenger’s side had already eclipsed Nottingham Forest’s 42-match run with victory over Blackburn during the week, and were never in any danger of slipping up against last season’s First Division champions today.

Goals from Jose Reyes, recalled to the starting XI, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires put the visitors in complete command by half-time.

A 50th-minute penalty from Darren Huckerby gave the home fans slim hope of an unlikely comeback, but that was never on the cards and substitute Dennis Bergkamp wrapped up a comprehensive victory in stoppage time.

As a result of Pascal Cygan’s late withdrawal from the named Arsenal side, the injury believed to have happened during the warm-up, teenager Justin Hoyte came into the backline, and boss Arsene Wenger elected to play with a four-man bench.

The first chance of the match fell to Reyes after eight minutes when the Spaniard found half a yard just inside the Norwich box, but his low drive was well held by Robert Green.

Simon Charlton had to be alert, not to mention accurate, to clear the ball over his own crossbar as Reyes then looked to get on the end of Pires’ knockdown after 16 minutes.

Henry then beat the Norwich offside trap from Freddie Ljungberg’s pass, but Green was out of his goal quickly to make a fine block.

The Frenchman turned provider as Arsenal finally took the lead on 22 minutes.

He picked the ball up off Ljungberg midway into the opposition half and promptly surged into the box, holding off the attention of four Norwich defenders before cutting the ball back to the far post to give Reyes the simplest of chances for his fourth Premiership goal of the season.

Reyes’ deflected 25-yard effort then had Green scrambling across his goal line but Norwich felt hard done by when referee Graham Poll only issued Lauren with a yellow card after he hauled down Huckerby.

It appeared the Arsenal defender was the last man some 25 yards out, and as such could have been dismissed.

But after consulting his assistant, the Hertfordshire official gave the home side a free-kick just inside the centre circle where, in his opinion, the initial foul had taken place.

The Carrow Road faithful were not impressed but they could not fail to appreciate the precision by which Arsenal doubled their advantage in the 37th minute.

Cesc Fabregas and Henry needed just one touch each to feed ball out to Ljungberg, before the Sweden international sent in a perfectly-weighted centre for the French striker to glance into the far corner.

And before the hosts had a chance to regroup, it was 3-0.

After more patient build-up from the visitors, Norwich skipper Adam Drury, under pressure from Ljungberg, failed to deal with a centre from Henry. The ball ran into the path of Pires, who made no mistake todispatch a low shot past Green into the corner from eight yards.

Norwich brought on Moroccan midfielder Yousef Safri for his debut at half-time and pulled a goal back from the penalty spot five minutes after the restart.

Huckerby got away down the left again, and after riding one challenge from Lauren on the edge of the box, he was tripped by Hoyte. The Norwich forward picked himself up to stroke the spot-kick into the bottom-left corner, sending Jens Lehmann the wrong way.

The Canaries had their tails up now, and Lehmann twice had to pull off good reaction stops to deny first Huckerby and then Holt.

Arsenal, though, soon settled back into their normal routine again as the hour approached.

With 27 minutes left, Nigel Worthington sent on striker Leon McKenzie for winger Paul McVeigh, and Huckerby moved out to the left of midfield.

It almost had an instant effect, but Gilberto did well to head clear after Huckerby had again got to the byline and cut the ball back into the danger area.

Another surging run by Huckerby saw the ball slipped through to McKenzie in space on the edge of the Arsenal area but the former Peterborough striker hesitated and was immediately closed down.

It should have been 4-1 with 10 minutes to go when another fine exchange of passes put Cole clear in the penalty area.

However, with Green committed, the England full-back chose to cut the ball back towards Pires rather than stroking it into the net and Norwich scrambled clear.

Although Norwich substitute Mathias Svensson bundled the ball into the net with two minutes left, he took the German keeper with him and the effort was rightly ruled out.

The rout was complete in stoppage time when Bergkamp, on for Reyes, smashed home Henry’s sweeping pass into the box.