Arsenal 5-1 Everton: Premier League highlights and recap

Arsenal beat Everton 5-1 at the Emirates on Saturday, Feb. 3. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud out. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang in. Did Arsenal get better or worse this January transfer window? Three assists for Mkhitaryan and a goal for Aubameyang on their home debuts, a 5-1 thrashing of Everton, suggests the former.

Arsene Wenger’s new-look starting XI — which included the new signings and Mesut Ozil, but not former record signing Alexandre Lacazette — were rampant at the Emirates, going 3-0 up within 20 minutes. From there, the only question was how long Arsenal’s players would continue to try.

The first goal, scored in the sixth minute, featured both new signings, with Aubameyang’s first time pass teeing up Mkhitaryan to cross to Aaron Ramsey for an easy finish. The second and third featured neither. Laurent Koscielny’s back-post header doubled the lead, before Ramsey got his second in the 19th minute, via a big deflection off Eliaquim Mangala.

Even at that stage, the only thing left to complete the perfect bounce-back performance for the Gunners following their midweek humiliation against Swansea was a goal for Aubameyang, which eventually arrived in the form of a lovely chipped finish in the 37th minute. That no one seemed to care the striker was offside was an indication of Arsenal’s dominance.

The second half went as second halves tend to go when one side is leading by four goals, which is to say not much happened. When Dominic Calvert-Lewin replaced Theo Walcott after an hour, and Calvert-Lewin headed in Cuco Martina’s cross to cut the lead to three, Everton briefly crackled into life.

But whatever hope they had was extinguished when Ramsey completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute, rifling Mkhitaryan’s cutback into the bottom right corner. It was an excellent finish for the Welshman, and a fine way to complete his first hat-trick as an Arsenal player.

Highlights

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Arsenal remain sixth after the win, three points behind fifth-place Tottenham, who play Liverpool on Sunday. Everton are in 10th place, level on points with ninth-place Bournemouth and four ahead of Watford, who play Chelsea on Monday.