Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that his side were forced to dig deep to carve out their 3-1 win over Stoke City in the Premier League.

The Frenchman said that the Potters made his players work harder than the scoreline suggests, particularly in the second half.

"We had a good first half and the second half was more digging in a little bit," he told Sky Sports News.

"We had to dig in because we lost our fluency, you could see that we lacked legs a bit but overall it's, of course, an important three points."

All three of Arsenal's goals came from set pieces, with summer signing Mesut Ozil involved in each of them.

"I didn't expect to score so many headers from free-kicks against Stoke, but the delivery is very important and the deliveries were good today," Wenger added.

"The confidence is there and the desire is there, and that's a very strong base. We can score goals and create chances, today in the second half we lost our usual game but in the end we won."

The result propels Arsenal to the top of the Premier League table on goal difference.