Mikel Arteta had wanted something less stressful than Arsenal’s previous home win over Bournemouth and he got his wish. In March of last year, his team had needed a 97th-minute Reiss Nelson goal to complete a wild 3-2 victory from 2-0 down.
Here, there was glory in the general sense of comfort and control, Arsenal moving to 83 points, doing everything they could to ask the question of the defending champions, Manchester City, in the race for the Premier League title.
