Arsenal hit five to crush sorry West Ham and go second in Premier League

Arsenal plundered another hatful of goals at West Ham as they climbed up to second in the Premier League with a frenetic 5-2 victory.

The Gunners can now put their feet up and watch title rivals Liverpool and Manchester City try to take points off each other on Sunday after what was a breathless encounter – or first half at least – at the London Stadium.

Just as they had at Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night, Arsenal had five different scorers, with Gabriel, Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka finding the net.

West Ham waited until they were 4-0 down before showing a modicum of fight, with goals from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Emerson Palmieri briefly making things interesting.

But Saka’s penalty before half-time put Arsenal back in control as the Hammers’ revival, which lasted precisely one match – Monday night’s win at Newcastle – came to an embarrassing end and no doubt raised more questions about the future of manager Julen Lopetegui.

Arsenal took the lead after only 10 minutes via a new corner routine, overloading the far post before, as Saka swung the ball in, all charging across goal at once.

Jurrien Timber barged Lucas Paqueta, who was manning the near post, out of the way and an unmarked Gabriel arrived in the gap to glance home his header.

They doubled their lead when Saka collected the ball out on the right and fed it inside to Odegaard, who lifted it into the area for the England winger to continue his run.

Saka side-footed a simple pass across goal to where Trossard was left with a tap-in.

Soon it was three, Paqueta and Emerson combining to make sure at least one of them fouled Saka in the box, with Odegaard confidently converting the penalty.

Barely 60 seconds later Max Kilman missed