By CHARLIE WYETT
THE flat-track bullies were at it again in north London last night.
Against a lower-placed team on a poor run, Arsenal delivered some scintillating, incisive and at times, carnival football.
Particularly in a stunning 10-minute burst at the start of the second half which saw them clobber West Ham with four goals.
Yet if Arsenal are to finish in a Champions League place for the 16th year in a row, their new kids on the block — Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla — must keep playing like this every week. For all remaining 15 games.
German international Podolski has lost his fizz since a brilliant start to life in English football.
Yet he cancelled out Jack Collison’s fine opener with a stunning goal, before causing havoc after half-time in his best performance for the club.
Frenchman Giroud grabbed goals number 10 and 11 of the season, Cazorla scored his eighth goal for the club and leading scorer Theo Walcott registered his 16th of the campaign.
After his goal, Walcott pretended to sign a piece of paper. Anyone would think he has just penned a new deal worth £100,000 a week.
So it was smiles all round until towards the end of the game.
The celebrations on the final whistle were muted as both sets of fans had witnessed the sight of West Ham defender Danny Potts, 18, leaving the pitch on a stretcher.
He was knocked unconscious after a clash with Bacary Sagna and needed nine minutes of treatment before being taken to hospital in a neck brace. It was a bad end to a poor night for West Ham who, if they are not careful, could find themselves sucked into a relegation fight. One win in eight is certainly worrying.
After two successive defeats in the league, Arsenal, meanwhile, can once again dream of hunting down their neighbours. They turned around a 10-point gap on Tottenham last season and are now just four points behind.
But if Arsenal are to keep up the pressure, they have to do more than batter teams you would expect them to beat. The Gunners are great at dishing out such treatment to new arrivals who have just stepped up a division.
It is just when they face the bigger mobs that they struggle, as the recent losses to Manchester City and Chelsea prove. The home Premier League clash with Liverpool in six days is crucial.
You would like to think Arsenal will have at least one more arrival by then but knowing Wenger, he will leave it until January 31.
And you worry that he may even use this result as an excuse not to sign anyone at all. It would not be the biggest of surprises.
Podolski, who arrived from Cologne for £11m, is without doubt a fine player with bags of experience but needs to be more consistent.
Equally, Jack Wilshere, 21, was once again superb yet too much responsibility rests on his young shoulders.
Arsenal desperately need a holding midfielder and one of their targets, West Ham’s Mohamed Diame, had to settle for a cameo role off the bench.
West Ham’s 18th-minute lead came after a promising spell. Matty Taylor’s corner was only half cleared and Collison drove home. But his strike was matched by Podolski’s spectacular equaliser four minutes later.
Then Arsenal clobbered West Ham after the break. From a well-worked Walcott corner, Giroud raced in to fire into the roof of the net with a volley.
The third came soon after as a slick one-two between Podolski and Giroud ended with Cazorla coolly back-heeling the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen.
The misery continued for Hammers and again Podolski was the menace. He picked up a pass from Wilshere and delivered a perfectly-weighted ball for Walcott to score with a classy flick.
The battering continued and started to get embarrassing. Another great pass from Wilshere, another superb pass from Podolski, another goal from close-range for Giroud. This was getting silly.
Both sets of managers used their subs and West Ham were reduced to 10 men following Potts’ worrying departure.
It was a sad end to an otherwise lively, if one-sided, scrap.
