Well this is all getting rather fun at the moment, isn’t it? Arsenal romped to yet another hammering of an opponent and much like last weekend it was a claret and blue clad side who fell to our boys in fluorescent yellow.

Arteta had spoken about the return of some players from injury in his press conference on Friday but there wasn’t much sign of that as the squad arrived at Turf Moor yesterday, with only ESR coming back in to the squad from the bench, which meant the same side that started against West Ham would have to do it again this weekend. And boy did they do it. I think to a man there wasn’t one sub-par performance. At the back we had a collective who just don’t give up chances and both Saliba and Gabriel had a relatively comfortable day, whilst the full backs White and Kiwior were able to get forward and support when needed, as well as delivering strong and composed defensively displays on the rare time that Burnley ventured forward.

They rarely did. Zero shots on target in the whole match for Burnley and before we get in to the goals we scored I want to take a moment to big up Jakub Kiwior because once again he showed that he’s a more than adequate left back if he’s given enough game time. By playing to his strengths and not asking him to be a Zinchenko when Zinchenko isn’t available, he looks much more comfortable and he even could have got himself an assist with the Trossard goal as his ball found it way to Havertz who slightly fluffed his lines before Trossard swept home our fourth goal. Over the Christmas period he looked all at sea but right now if you tell me neither Tomiyasu or Zinchenko are free on Wednesday, I’m much less worried about it than I was six weeks ago.

And so to the sharp end of the pitch and the goals we got. Let’s start where the last para left off in talking about Trossard and Havertz, who have hit form at the perfect time and even have people online asking the question as to whether and how Gabriel Jesus gets back in to this team. Do you change a winning team when they are smashing teams like we are? That’s 21 goals in five games and we’re seeing and the fluidity and rotational movement of those two in particular is causing opponents a proper headache. At times it was Havertz at the top of the pitch playing in the false nine and when he scored his superbly nonchalant goal to cap off the performance and make it five he was the guy picking up the wide left position coming from out to in from the throw in. But at other times he was sat deeper and it was Trossrad playing off the last man. As a former defender myself if I’ve been detailed to focus on one guy it makes it really difficult when they move like those two did because you have to constantly shift your focus and in a league where the smallest margins make the biggest difference, these kind of details can be really significant.

Either side of those two our wide forwards are also hitting form and although he didn’t score yesterday, Martinelli had his full back on toast. Goal number one for Odegaard (I’ll come to him in a minute) was a superb outside of the right boot Paul Merson-style stab to the edge of the box and that was after he’d been played in for the first time on four minutes. He was to have the run of his full back all afternoon and I thought even though he didn’t score, Martinelli was a candidate for man of the match. But so were so many players, including Saka and Odegaard. On Saka, he just keeps delivering and that’s now 15 goals and 13 assists in all competitions this season. He’s had 32 appearances this season and bagged 28 goal contributions. Any discussion about his ‘class’ is ridiculous; this kid is mustard and whilst his penalty was cool and calm, his second goal right after half time was an absolute peach. The technique needed to shift your body and move the ball the way he did was really impressive. Odegaard’s pass was perfectly weighted, but Saka still has a little bit of work to do and the way he lashed it in to the roof of the net with his weaker foot reminded me of the goal he scored at Elland Road against Leeds last season. This kid has it all and he’s still only 22. Amazing.

And so was the captain, who was also in the debate on the Same Old Arsenal podcast last night as we talked about man of the match, as he bagged himself a goal and an assist yesterday to bring his tally of contributions this season to 15. When he is on it and we are flowing our attacking play through him we look like such a good side. I love the way he works, the way he retains possession in even the tightest of spaces and honestly if I was in a small room with him and he had the ball at his feet with my instructions to get out of the room by winning the ball off of him, I think I would be locked in said room forever. It must be so frustrating to be an opposition player and have a guy standing a yard away from you who can just switch the ball from foot to foot instantly and you can’t get near it. Thankfully he’s ours and when he puts in performances like yesterday he’s virtually unplayable. Let’s hope this form continues for the rest of the season.

And let’s hope this happens for the rest of the team for the remainder of this season. We’ve got players in form, players still to return from injury and there is a swagger about us right now that is essential if we’re going to even be in the discussion about the title come April. We need to keep this momentum because with Porto away on Wednesday and Newcastle next Saturday, it’s going to start getting even tougher and more intense. But for now we can bask in the radiant glow of yet another hammering which puts us second just a goal behind Liverpool’s goal’s scored tally, yet two better than them in terms of conceded. We are right in the conversation and to top it all off City dropped points to Chelsea and the Scum got done at home to Wolves. Great stuff.

Catch you all tomorrow.