Lightweight Bradford City were overwhelmed by a rampant Arsenal side on the rebound from Saturday's defeat by Manchester United.

The BBC's Steve Tongue: "They should have had several more"

Arsenal scored two goals in the opening 17 minutes and outclassed the Bantams in all divisions but squandered almost a dozen chances to add to their tally.

The gulf between the two teams appeared huge as Dennis Bergkamp and Nwankwo Kanu terrorised the Yorkshire defence while Patrick Vieira mastered the midfield.

Arsenal's new £10m signing Thierry Henry missed another hatful of opportunities to open his Arsenal account and Bradford somehow managed to keep the scoreline respectable.

Missing link

More than half the Arsenal line-up missed clear chances to score but Frederik Ljungberg, Ray Parlour and both substitutes, Davor Suker and Marc Overmars all missed sitters.

But the Gunners knew they had the game won after the first quarter of an hour.

In the seventh minute Ray Parlour's cross-shot earned Arsenal a corner - Vieira rising effortlessly above his challengers at the far post to power home the opening goal.

Ten minutes later Arsenal had the game sewn up when a goal-bound Parlour was pulled down from behind by Wayne Jacobs.

Penalty kick

Kanu slammed home the penalty for the Gunners second - and should have had three more before the interval, never mind the final whistle.

Manager Arsene Wenger defensive problems have been the talk of Highbury and only Martin Keown remained of the back-four which were so difficult to beat last season.

South American full-backs Nelson Vivas and Silvinho and Frenchman Gilles Grimandi coming in for the injured Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon and Tony Adams.

But it will be the lack of finishing displayed by Arsenal - who threw away the lead to United last weekend and could have been embarrassed by City had they capitalised on two rare half-chances - most worrying Wenger.