Saka on Arsenal’s 6-0 win: ‘We smelled blood, went for kill’

Bukayo Saka said Arsenal “smelled blood and wanted to kill” during their ruthless 6-0 win over West Ham at the London Stadium on Sunday.

Arsenal moved back to within two points of leaders Liverpool as headers from centre-back duo William Saliba and Gabriel, Saka's 41st-minute penalty and a fine strike from Leandro Trossard put them 4-0 up at the break.

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Thousands of West Ham fans gathered at half-time and chose not to return. In their absence, Saka scored again in the 63rd minute before Declan Rice fired in a superb effort from 25 yards and refused to celebrate against his former club after crossing London for a fee of £105 million (133 million). dollars) last summer.

“We were 4-0 up in the first half and we could have scored a lot more, including myself,” Saka told Sky Sports.

“I think we smelled blood today and we wanted to kill. We did really well to score more and we were really happy.”

Recording their biggest away win in Premier League history, Arsenal backed up last weekend's win over Liverpool to move within two points of Jurgen Klopp's side and level with Manchester City , who has a match in hand.

Asked if Saka's comments indicated a team ready to hunt down their title rivals, Arteta told a post-match press conference: “What I sense is a team who wants to be better and better. The way they trained this week, they were totally focused on the game after Liverpool to say “OK, this is a big task and now it's time to move on to another level and beat West Ham” and they certainly did that today.

“We are maintaining and building some momentum now and the performances have been very strong as well as the results and we have to maintain that because we are not the only ones.

“We know the standards and the level we are up against and we need to be at that level if we have any chance of succeeding.”