LONDON (AFP) - Eduardo got off the mark for Arsenal as Arsene Wenger's side cruised through to the Champions League group stages with a 3-0 win over Sparta Prague on Wednesday.

Croatia forward Eduardo claimed his first goal for the Gunners with a last minute strike after Tomas Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas had put Arsenal on course for a 5-0 aggregate victory in the third qualifying round at the Emirates Stadium.

The Brazilian-born star was making his third appearance since his eight-million-pound move from Dinamo Zagreb and capped an influential display with a clinical finish.

Arsenal had won 2-0 in the first leg in Prague and the Czech champions never threatened to stop them going into Thursday's draw for the lucrative group stages for the 10th successive season.

Wenger's team have repeatedly been dismissed as also-rans in the race for major honours this season, but they have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the campaign that suggests they could confound the critics.

The French coach said: "We finished the job well by scoring an early goal and after that it took a little bit of the edge off the game.

"We kept good focus. Over the two ties we didn't concede a goal and scored five. You felt we could always put our foot down on the gas and score more if we needed."

Sparta coach Michal Bilek claimed his side had been unlucky to lose so heavily.

"It was a cruel result," Bilek said. "In the first match Arsenal had two shots and scored two goals and here they had three shots and scored three goals."

Wenger felt comfortable enough with Arsenal's position to make five changes to the team that beat Manchester City on Saturday.

He wisely opted to leave Fabregas on the bench after his first leg clash with Sparta defender Tomas Repka, who had been the victim of a crunching tackle from the Spaniard in retaliation for his pre-match threat to "sort out" Arsenal.

Although Bilek admitted his side's chances of progressing were slim he wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the London club.

But any doubts that Arsenal would enjoy a straight-forward passage were erased in the seventh minute.

Sparta felt they were hard-done-by as Theo Walcott was given the benefit of a tight offside decision and the winger took full advange as he picked out Rosicky's run with a perfect pass.

Rosicky, who started his career at Sparta, has been criticised for his lack of goals since joining Arsenal, but the Czech midfielder's low first-time strike flashed past Tomas Postulka in the manner of a true predator.

It took Sparta 25 minutes before they even had a shot at Manuel Almunia's goal when Marek Kulic's effort deflected over.

At least Walcott offered occasional moments of promise down the right wing, with his pace troubling Sparta left-back Jiri Kladrubsky repeatedly.

With the match all but won it was inevitable Arsenal would suffer the occasional lapse in concentration, although Wenger would not have been happy with the way Gael Clichy allowed Jan Rezek to ghost in behind him.

If Rezek had kept his composure Sparta could easily have reduced the deficit but the winger scuffed his shot wide.

Almunia can rarely have had a quieter 90 minutes. He made only one serious stop to turn away a back-header from Justin Hoyte that flashed across goal from a corner early in the second half.

How Jens Lehmann, dropped by Wenger after his two blunders against Fulham and Blackburn, must have wished he could have faced such mediocre opponents.

Sparta were willing but painfully limited and Fabregas came on to underline the gap between the teams in the 82nd minute.

Eduardo cleverly worked space to pick out Fabregas just inside the area and the Spaniard swept his shot past Postulka.

There was still time for Eduardo to open his Arsenal account with a close-range volley from Denilson's cross in the 90th minute.