This was an emphatic and ultimately comfortable 5-1 away win for Arsenal against West Ham that gets the confidence flowing nicely again and keeps us right in the hunt for the Premier League title. It did not always look that way though as even though the Gunners dominated the game we were not clinical and only went in to halftime with a single goal.
But the creative and finishing ability of Alexis Sanchez eventually told as the Chilean striker capped a fine display with an excellent hat-trick, the third of which was a sublime bit oif trickery to put the West Ham Keeper on the floor before dinking a finish over him.
His second was also pretty special as he showed a fantastic touch to control a fizzed pass and then turn on a sixpence before firing a fierce shot into the corner from a tight angle. The fact that Sanchez also layed the opener on a plate for Ozil toi tap in just shows how much we rely on the striker.
Apart from Arsenal not making the most of our dominace until later on thre only real negative was that we failed to keep a clean sheet although it was a bit unlucky that Payet’s free kick came off the bar perfectly into the path of Andy Carroll.
The other Arsenal goal was a brilliant strike from distance by the excellent Oxlade-Chamberlain who produced one of his best displays in an Arsenal shirt. Xhaka got another 90 minutes under his belt and Gabriel did well at right back so all in all it was a great day for the Gunners who leapfrog Man City and Liverpool to go second.
Bob.