West Brom 1-3 Arsenal

Whatever words Arsene Wenger used in his attempts to shake Arsenal out of their goal-scoring malaise, they could not have been as effective as those which appeared on the fixture list this week: West Brom away.

For as comprehensive as a 3-1 scoreline suggests, the Gunners never needed to get out of second gear thanks to their accommodating hosts, who allowed a faltering side oceans of space to rediscover their touch in front of goal.

Arsenal were never at their fluent best and three goals courtesy of a more direct approach marked a refreshing change from the excessive passing that had contributed to four successive scoreless draws.

Last night's victory extends their unbeaten run to 14 League games and reduces the gap to three points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa ahead of their trip to Manchester City tonight.

Defender Bacary Sagna insisted Arsenal were never worried about their goalscoring drought as Nicklas Bendtner (right) netted twice and Kolo Toure scored for the first time this season.

A section of the Arsenal support had voiced their frustration in recent weeks as their team fired blanks against Tottenham, West Ham, Sunderland and Fulham but the 26-year-old believes his team-mates never felt the pressure.

"We talk to each other but we never talked about scoring goals," said Frenchman Sagna. "I think everyone was just looking forward and last night we did the job.

"We have not been waiting for this kind of night, we just want to take points and that is it. I hope last night will be good for us.

"We played as a team and we scored goals and we see that when we score goals, we can win games. It was tough because they are quite a good team but we gave everything."

Tony Mowbray's commitment to attacking football is an admirable trait but that philosophy is consistently undermined by shambolic defending that will condemn the Baggies to inevitable relegation if not quickly addressed. Bendtner was afforded far too much time to compose himself and fire a well-placed effort past Scott Carson, before Toure was left totally unmarked to head home an Andrey Arshavin free-kick to score a goal distinctly similar to Tim Cahill's strike for Everton against the Baggies last weekend.

Sandwiched in between those two efforts was Chris Brunt's free-kick that found a sizeable gap between Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Song in the Arsenal wall to catch Manuel Almunia by surprise, but the result was never in doubt once captain Toure struck.

The centre-back turned provider with a simple straight ball forward that found Bendtner in inexplicable space and the Danish striker added a third with an efficient finish.

Wenger said: "The two strikers did very well. Nicklas Bendtner looks like he is improving from month to month.

"Andrey Arshavin is improving from game to game as well - in his class and composure although he has been a bit unlucky in his finishing."