Arsenal exorcised Chelsea demons with rout, says Walcott

By Press Association Sport

Theo Walcott hailed Arsenal's bright young things as the Gunners put the past behind them to soundly beat London rivals Chelsea on Saturday evening.

Arsene Wenger celebrates 20 years in charge of Arsenal on Friday but he had not seen his side win this particular Premier League London derby since 2011 - but that changed in style as the hosts stormed to a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium.

Alexis Sanchez marked his 100th appearance for the club with the opener before Walcott doubled the lead and Mesut Ozil volleyed home as Arsenal overran the Blues in a scintillating first-half display.

Walcott likened the display to that which saw them rack up the same scoreline at home to Manchester United almost a year ago and, after finally breaking their hoodoo against Chelsea, the England international believes Arsenal's squad now has the required experience to keep winning the big matches.

"We worked hard in the week and we obviously know what's happened in the past," he said.

"But the past is the past, it's all about now and this team is bright and young and has got a lot more experience in these games now.

"When we played Man United at home last year it was fantastic, but I think it's been quietly coming actually, to be honest with you."

The win on Saturday moved Arsenal up to third in the table, but Wenger insisted afterwards that leaders Manchester City remain the team to beat in the title race.

Walcott, too, was cautious when asked whether this victory should be seen as a statement of intent from Arsenal.

"You know what, we've been here before," he added.

"I've had so much experience in the years but we're not doing ourselves any harm. We just want to keep on doing our business.

"We want to try and improve and see what the negatives were in the game, I'm sure there'll be a few. We always wanted to keep a clean sheet, if we keep clean sheets we're going to win games because we can score goals up front, so you've got to give credit to everyone.

"We've got some great individuals but when you get those individual stats you play as a team as well, everyone is focused and you could see that the 11 men wanted to win this more than the other team and thankfully we did that."