Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal’s 5-2 win at West Ham was “crazy”, but he believes his side have got their momentum back in the Premier League title race.
The Gunners have proved reports of their demise have been exaggerated after three thumping wins in the space of a week.
Having gone five Premier League matches without a win until they beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 last weekend, Arsenal then thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
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They then put in another five-star display in a breathless encounter – or first half at least – at the London Stadium.
Just as they had in Lisbon, 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 rolled in a penalty to put Arsenal back in charge and ensure the second half was a non-event.
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.
It was a record-equalling score-line, only the fourth time seven goals have been scored in the first half of a Premier League match.
“That tells you how crazy it was,” said Arteta. “A spectacular 30 minutes, straight away showed how much the team wanted it, to score three great goals in different ways and then the fourth.
“But then after that we had a period with the quality of them, at 4-2 and it’s game on, the energy changed. And what’s next? So it was great to score the fifth one and we could play a very different game in the second half.
“We’ve got some momentum, some flow back, three consecutive wins is great. We’re going to enjoy tonight and watch a good game of football tomorrow.
“We are in a great moment. But in football, be on your toes. It’s so competitive. We’ll analyse today and go again tomorrow.”
Hammers boss Julen Lopetegui felt Arsenal’s first goal, another inventive corner routine which saw Jurrien Timber barge Lucas Paqueta out of the way before Gabriel headed home, should not have counted.
Lukasz Fabianski’s inadvertent punch on Gabriel earned Arsenal a penalty (Chris Radburn/PA).
He had no complaints about Trossard’s tap-in from Saka’s cross, or the foul on Saka by a combination of Emerson and Paqueta which allowed Odegaard to add the third from the spot.
Arsenal’s fourth came from a mistake from Max Kilman which allowed Havertz to race through.
But Lopetegui also felt Lukasz Fabianski’s inadvertent punch on Gabriel, rather than the ball, was not sufficient to give the Gunners a second penalty.
“It was a very strange first half – we didn’t deserve two goals and they didn’t deserve five,” he said.
“Some very strange things happened. The first goal was a set-piece that we prepared for and it’s a clear foul. We have to do better with the second and third goals.
“We scored two goals with positive energy and then the fifth goal, the penalty, in my opinion is not a penalty. The fifth goal killed the match.”