Goal-happy Arsenal stay hot on Liverpool's heels

LONDON : Arsenal's goal rush continued unabated as they thrashed Burnley 5-0 to stay right in the slipstream of Premier League leaders Liverpool who thumped Brentford on Saturday.

Liverpool took advantage of their early kickoff to stretch their lead to five points with Mohamed Salah scoring on his return from injury in a 4-1 victory in west London.

But Arsenal were undaunted and followed up their 6-0 win at West Ham United last weekend with a 5-0 victory at Turf Moor.

Liverpool have 57 points from 25 games with Arsenal on 55 and champions Manchester City, who were kicking off later at home to Chelsea, in third place on 52 from 23.

Aston Villa climbed back into fourth place courtesy of a 2-1 victory at Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur's 2-1 home defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After a dip in form at the end of last year, Arsenal have now won five league games in a row and scored 21 goals in that sequence, conceding only two.

They were far too good for a Burnley side hurtling towards relegation and once Martin Odegaard opened the scoring in the fourth minute the result was a formality.

Bukayo Saka made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the 41st after a foul on Leandro Trossard and Saka struck again just after the break for his 12th league goal of the campaign.

Trossard made it 4-0 and Kai Havertz added a fifth as Arsenal sent out another big title statement.

"At the moment all we can do is win our games and after our big two wins away from home we have a tough one in the Champions League at Porto," manager Mikel Arteta said.

"I hope we can do it (win the title) because we are there but it is about consistency and you see the standards of the other teams. We want it, that's for sure."

Liverpool were equally impressive at Brentford