Arsenal pass physical examination

They beat Everton 4-1 at Goodison Park, a ground that had seen them lose four of their previous seven visits, and where they are always given a severe physical examination.

Wenger said: "We battled, we had to. Last season here, Everton played a very physical game and they were very direct. And we lost. I can understand that they repeated this tactic. This time we won, but it was very close."

In a spiteful game that saw Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner and Everton's Mikel Arteta sent off, the Gunners claimed the three points that take them back above Manchester United, shock losers at West Ham.

And Wenger added: "I was tempted to change the team around at half-time, but I felt the reason we were not winning was that we had become nervous after hearing the Manchester United result.

"But we were playing against a good Everton side who stopped us playing, they did well and it was up to us to get the ball down and be more positive. And to be less nervous because we lost too much possession in the first half.

"After the break we were maybe fortunate to score straight away, 1-1, and that changed the game. From then on we looked dangerous, Everton dropped physically and we were ahead very quickly."

Tim Cahill had stabbed Everton into a deserved lead at the break, but Everton were overcome in spectacular fashion.

Eduardo da Silva struck twice to take Arsenal into the lead, his first goals in the Premier League although he now has nine in 10 games for the Gunners. Arsenal rubbed it in with goals from substitutes Emmanuel Adebayor and Tomas Rosicky as Everton fell to their first home defeat since mid-October.

Everton boss David Moyes felt the result was harsh on his side. He said: "Overall I felt we were the better team, the best team lost. I felt we deserved to win the game and played the best football. We passed it better than Arsenal and they scored with humps up the pitch."