Classy Arsenal destroy West Ham

A hat-trick from Alexis Sanchez helped Arsenal ease past a poor West Ham 5-1 in the Premier League at the Olympic stadium.

Any doubts that Arsenal would suffer from their usual November slump are put to bed after this evening’s display, and with Sanchez seemingly firing on all cylinders, there is no reason why the North-London outfit cannot launch a Premier League title challenge if teams ahead of them start dropping points.

The Chilean was instrumental in a fine Gunner’s display, and unselfishly squared the ball to Mesut Ozil who tapped into an empty net in the 24^th minute following lacklustre defending from Angelo Ogbonna.

Sanchez made it 2-0 in the 71^st minute, before grabbing his second after slotting home from long-range.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled off a spectacular finish in the 84^th minute from outside the area, and two minutes later, Sanchez completed the hammering, and his hat-trick, when he displayed great feet before flicking the ball over the helpless Darren Randolph.

The home fans did have something to cheer when Andy Carroll returned from injury and came off the bench to score a consolation after Payet’s free-kick rebounded off the crossbar, leaving the 27-year-old to head home from close-range.

The visitors knew they needed a positive result following their ‘top-four’ rivals winning their respective games and this was evident in their play when Sanchez was centimetres away from poking in the opening goal following great work on the left from Nacho Monreal.

Sanchez-who tormented the Hammer’s backline all evening- saw another chance go begging in the 29^th minute after the former Barcelona man hit a curling effort from outside the box before Ireland international Randolph got down well to keep his already struggling side in the tie.

Ogbonna had a chance to make up for his earlier mistake when the Italian got on the end of youngster Ashley Fletcher’s cross, although the 28-year-old failed to direct his close-range header on target.

Theo Walcott-who has scored most of his Premier League goals against West Ham than any other team-was guilty of a missed header of his own in the 48^th minute after Ozil found the former Southampton winger free at the near-post, but the England international headed over, despite no pressure from the Iron’s backline.

If truth be told, Arsenal could have added more to their already impressive tally of goals, but much to the relief of Slaven Bilic,failed to do so and will look forward to their next game when they host Stoke City on the 6^th of December; West Ham meanwhile face a tough trip to face Liverpool on the 11^th.

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