Arsenal crush West Ham to move up to 2nd in Premier League | OneFootball

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Arsenal delivered a dominant attacking performance at the London Stadium, defeating West Ham 5-2 and moving up to second place in the Premier League. The Gunners, led by Bukayo Saka, completely overwhelmed their hosts with five goals in a frantic first half, continuing their recent run of impressive performances.

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Saka was instrumental, scoring once himself from the spot, winning the penalty that Ødegaard converted, and providing assists for Gabriel and Leandro Trossard. Kai Havertz also scored, completing a commanding attacking performance. Saka’s influence this season has been immense, with 10 assists and five goals in 12 appearances in the Premier League so far.

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Arsenal’s recent surge in form has coincided with the return of Martin Ødegaard, whose playmaking ability was missed during his two-month absence due to an ankle injury.

Since Ødegaard’s return, Arsenal have strung together a series of big wins, including a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest, a 5-1 win against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, and now this emphatic result against West Ham.

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Although Arsenal conceded twice in the first half, once from a free-kick that should never have been given, their relentless attack ensured the outcome was never really in doubt.

All seven goals came in the opening half, only the fourth time that has happened in Premier League history.

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This victory cuts Arsenal’s gap to leaders Liverpool to six points, with Liverpool set to face Manchester City next.

Arsenal, who have finished as runners-up to City in the last two seasons, may be hoping for a City win to help their title chances, although City’s current travails are entertaining and it would be sad to see those end.

Injury updates

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Three players were taken off against West Ham with what appeared to be injuries.

After the game, Mikel Arteta confirmed that Bukayo Saka is ‘fine’, Riccardo Calafiori is still having his minutes managed, while Gabriel was taken off as a precaution for a tweak to his hamstring against Sporting.

According to Arteta, Gabriel’s halftime substitution was nothing to do with being punched in the face by Lukasz Fabianksi, despite the defender looking clearly dazed.

That is fortunate for Arsenal, as a concussion would rule him out of Wednesday’s game against Manchester United.

Saka – ‘It was a lot of fun!’

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“I’m happy so far but you know, I have to keep going,” he said. “I can’t get complacent. It’s a long season and we’re only in November so, I need to continue like this.

“It was a lot of fun, [we scored] a lot of goals and, yeah, we enjoyed it.

“We’ve been playing like that the last few games, scoring a lot of goals. We’re in good form, good confidence and we’re enjoying our football.”

“We’ve built a lot of momentum now, we’ve played really well the last three games, not just the results were good but also the way we played so we’re happy, we’re confident and we’re going to take it into the next game which, we know is a big one.

“We’re feeling good, we’re feeling ready for it, confident, so, let’s go!”

The rest of the Premier League

Elsewhere, Ruud van Nistelrooy, newly appointed as Leicester City manager, saw the size of the task ahead of him as his team lost 4-1 to Brentford. Kevin Schade scored a hat trick to lead Brentford’s comeback after Leicester initially took the lead. Meanwhile, Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert made Premier League history by converting three penalties in their 4-2 win over Wolverhampton—a first in the league.

Sunday sees Chelsea host Aston Villa, Manchester United welcome Everton, Fulham travel to Tottenham and, of course, Liverpool vs Manchester City.