England

Arsenal and Saka bring energy and noise to their renewed title challenge | Barney Ronay

11-Feb-2024 19:18:25 | Guardian

Mikel Arteta’s side are fighting City and Haaland and Klopp’s Liverpool but celebrations at West Ham show their intent

Arsenal’s players didn’t celebrate much at the end here. But then, Mikel Arteta’s team could be excused feeling a little spooked by what was a genuinely strange afternoon, a haunted house of a Premier League game.

Somehow they managed to go in at half-time 4-0 up, but still looking like a team that probably could do with a proper centre‑forward (it should, frankly, have been seven or eight). Either side of this the home crowd disappeared, came back, then vanished for good, leaving so much empty plastic in the stands the London Stadium might have been designated an environmental disaster zone by the UN.