Arsenal 2 Bradford 0
Arsenal barely needed to get out of second gear as they moved up to second place in the Premiership behind runaway leaders Manchester United with a 2-0 win over bottom club Bradford.
Arsenal have 44 points from 25 games, 12 less than United who have a game in hand.
Goals from Ray Parlour and Lauren inside the first half hour were sufficient to brush aside the challenge of the Yorkshiremen.
Bradford's game plan was to camp in their own half and hope to frustrate their hosts and they would have been given a significant lift had Ashley Ward converted their one chance after just three minutes.
Clean through on his left side with just David Seaman to beat, the former Derby striker prodded a weak right-footed shot ten yards wide of goal.
With that Bradford's prospects of gaining anything from this game evaporated and it was a question of when Arsenal would make the breakthrough.
They did so after just 17 minutes. Dennis Bergkamp's delightful touch gave Parlour the space to move forward and drill a ferocious right foot shot into the bottom corner of Gary Walsh's goal.
Nine minutes later Lee Dixon crossed for Lauren to head a second into the same corner and the result was settled beyond doubt.
Arsene Wenger's side settled into an energy-saving routine, mindful of their trip to Coventry in four days time, but there was enough spare in the tank for them to twice rattle the Bradford woodwork.
Thierry Henry's intelligent sidefoot gave Parlour a run at goal, only this time Walsh got a slight touch to divert the ball on to the foot of a post.
Substitute Gilles Grimandi then fed a measured pass into Cole's path and the young full-back strode on before driving in a low shot which beat Walsh but bounced to safety off the post.
Charlton's eighth Premiership win at The Valley this season saw them climb above London rivals Chelsea into eighth place after beating strugglers Derby 2-1.
Goals from Matt Svensson and Scott Parker sealed the one-sided victory but things might have been different for struggling Derby had Craig Burley not missed a penalty shortly before the break.
The Scot had levelled with a 35th-minute free-kick, Derby's first attempt on goal but anything other than a home win would have been an injustice.
AFP