Five changes, three goals and a place in the FA Cup Fourth Round.

Things are ticking over nicely these days at Arsenal.

They moved through the gears to ease past sorry Sunderland and it will once again take a very good side - or a massive shock - to loosen the Gunners’ grip on the trophy they retained last May.

It is also quite something that the club’s fans continue calling for more signings - and that Wenger continues to target more players - when he has so many options at his disposal.

How injury-hit Jurgen Klopp would have loved to be able to slot in a Gabriel at centre-half, a Kieran Gibbs at left-back, a Joel Campbell on the right and the highly-promising Alex Iwobi in attack when Liverpool played Exeter on Friday night.

Arsenal will find that a far more experienced, albeit patched-up, side awaits them when they travel to Anfield on Wednesday night.

With the Gunners defeated just once in their last ten games in all competitions, however - winning eight and drawing the other - there is a momentum building in N5.

“Once you’re on a roll, you can rotate if you have no injuries,” said Wenger. “Everybody is mentally focused to pull in the same direction.

“It’s easier to keep everybody on board because you have always the next competition, and everybody thinks I have a chance to play. That is the positive and negative is he fatigue factor, the injuries at the end of the season.

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Three and easy: The Gunners made short work of Big Sam's side (
Image:
Reuters / Stefan Wermuth)

“You find you have a rhythm. You try to check who needs a breather, who needs a rest and you do it but you’re here to keep the squad focused and motivated when you have that many games.”

Sunderland’s Jeremain Lens sent Sunderland into a shock lead when he robbed Laurent Koscielny and finished clinically midway through the first half.

The manner of the goals conceded by the Black Cats, however, summed up exactly why they remain among the favourites to be relegated.

Debutant Jordan Pickford in goal and midfielder Duncan Watmore were the only other two players to emerge with any credit from this defeat.

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Highly-rated Pickford, 21, saved superbly from Gibbs, Campbell and Giroud. It was easy to see from his performance why England Under-21 keeper is tipped to follow the likes of Joe Hart.

The more experienced players in front of him, however, were pulled apart by the movement of Man of the Match Hector Bellerin, who laid on the last two goals.

Sam Allardyce is looking for new defenders this month in a desperate bid to keep Sunderland in the Premier League. This match handed him even more reasons why.

But back to Arsenal. They were put out of the Capital One Cup at Sheffield Wednesday back in October, but Arsenal - also in the Champions League knockout stages - are very much focused on a unique Treble this season.

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With six wins under his belt, Wenger has nothing to prove to anybody in terms of his commitment to the FA Cup. Nothing will change this season as Wenger bids to make the Gunners the first club since Blackburn - 130 years ago - to lift the trophy three years in a row.

He went on: “I think not say ‘we are a big club’ and not go for competitions. That is for me impossible.

“I’ve seen here Bayern go for the cup every year, Barcelona or Real Madrid go for the cup every year. Why? Because they are big clubs. You can’t say ‘we move out of [give up on] a cup competition, a national cup.'”

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