Theo Walcott scored twice as 10-man Arsenal won their sixth Premier League game in a row, despite a spirited Swansea City display in Bob Bradley's first match as manager.

Gunners and England forward Walcott now has five goals in eight games, taking advantage of a heavy Jordi Amat touch for his first and a poor Jack Cork header for his second.

The Swans looked dejected after the quick-fire double, though Gylfi Sigurdsson pounced on a Granit Xhaka error to curl in and give them hope before the break.

Mesut Ozil volleyed in an Alexis Sanchez cross to restore a two-goal lead for the hosts, but substitute Borja Baston tapped in a cross from the impressive Modou Barrow to set up a tense finale.

Arsenal saw Xhaka sent off for a petulant trip and despite seeing Walcott squander two late chances, they held on as Swansea equalled their worst start to a league season.

Theo's purple patch

The Welsh side are in the bottom three and winless since the opening day of the season - but it would be wrong to be overly negative about this display.

In truth, they had not been stretched by their hosts early on and it was two defensive lapses which left them with a mountain to climb.

Walcott was on hand from close range to punish them and he has now scored as many goals in eight outings as he did in all 28 of his Premier League appearances last season.

The 27-year-old has only ever reached double figures once in a league season, scoring 14 times in the 2012-13 campaign.

But he seemed hungry in front of goal, with six shots - a game high - and, notably, when he sensed Amat would have difficulty dealing with a bouncing ball and prodded home.

Walcott's approach play was also sharp - completing 92% of his passes - and he worked hard too, with only Santi Cazorla and Hector Bellerin covering more ground for Arsene Wenger's side.

Late on he missed two one-on-one chances for his hat-trick, the first of which saw him strike the post and watch as the ball rolled agonisingly back across the goalline.

Source:bbc.com