Arsenal 3 Charlton 0: Arsenal stepped up the pressure on north London rivals Tottenham in the race for the final Champions League place with a tidy demolition of Charlton at Highbury.
Robert Pires scored from close range following a fine, flowing move by the home side inside quarter of an hour, with Emmanuel Adebayor knocking in a second before the break after a terrible blunder by Charlton defender Hermann Hreidarsson.
The impressive Alexander Hleb added a third five minutes into the second half as the Gunners recorded three successive Premiership wins at a canter.
Indeed, it could have been more for Arsenal with the hosts simply outclassing Alan Curbishley’s men, who face an FA Cup quarter-final tie with Middlesbrough on Thursday.
Charlton were in danger of being over-run in midfield, and Arsenal finally went ahead on 13 minutes. Hleb won the ball from former Arsenal trainee Thomas, and sped away down the right.
He fed Thierry Henry, who in turn picked out Adebayor on the edge of the box. A quick one-two released the Gunners captain down the left side, for him to surge to the goal-line and cut a pass back to Pires, who could not miss.
It was then 2-0 on 32 minutes. Henry’s through-ball should have been cut out easily by Hreidarsson, 15 yards from his own goal. However, the Icelander’s terrible control allowed it to squirm away from him, and right to the waiting Adebayor, who slid in to hook the ball past Myhre.
To their credit, Charlton did not let their work-rate drop, but too often both England striker Darren Bent and winger Dennis Rommedahl saw promising runs checked by an offside flag.
Arsenal were soon in the ascendancy following the restart and, after 49 minutes, they were 3-0 ahead.
Hleb was allowed to surge to the edge of the area and shoot, with Hreidarsson making a brave block. Spector then threw himself in the path of Adebayor’s strike from the rebound, only for Hleb to then lash the loose ball into the net.
Arsenal comfortably played out the remaining few minutes to secure a third straight Premiership win as the fortunes of the Champions League quarter-finalists continued to improve.
PA
