Mesut Özil scored the first and set up the second as Arsenal beat West Ham United 3-0 at The Emirates on Wednesday night.
Three second-half goals from Özil, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud sealed a comfortable win to take the Gunners backabove Manchester United into fifth on goal difference, whilst the Hammers sit dangerously close to the drop zone.
Martínez in for injured Ospina for Gunners
Arsenal made three changes from the team that drew with Manchester City on Sunday as third-choice goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez replaced the injured David Ospina whilst Gabriel partnered Shkodran Mustafi at centre-back in the absence of Laurent Koscielny.
Mohamed Elneny started his first league game since New Year's Day and after Arsenal not naming a captain in the second-half last weekend, Walcott took the armband.
West Ham made two changes from their defeat away at Hull as Arthur Masuaku replaced Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio replaced Robert Snodgrass on the right hand side.
Hammers on the front foot early on
Despite being without a win for over two months, West Ham started on the front foot as Manuel Lanzini went close from a free-kick on the left and Mark Noble had half a chance when he dispossessed Elneny and ran at Gabriel before scuffing his shot wide.
Arsenal's first chance came seconds later when Walcott fired straight at Darren Randolph after some good play down the right from Hector Bellerín.
Arsenal were starting to assert their authority and could well have had a penalty when the lively Walcott was pushed by Masuaku, but referee Martin Atkinson waved away the appeal.
The Gunners were dominating by the time Danny Welbeck should have done much better after he bought some space from an Alexis Sánchez free kick, but could only kick thin air.
Arsenal go close again
Arsène Wenger's men squandered another chance four minutes before the break when Sánchez wriggled free from two West Ham defenders and squared for Bellerín, but Jose Fonte was there to block the Spaniard's shot before Elneny's follow-up was deflected over by James Collins.
The hosts carried on where they left off at the start of the second-half and Collins had to be alert to prevent Özil getting a shot away from 12 yards out on his 150th appearance for Arsenal.
Ozil starts second-half romp
Despite a shaky opening quarter of an hour, Arsenal had been more than deserving of a goal and it came just before the hour mark.
German international Özil netted on his landmark night in soft fashion, as his left-footed shot from the edge of the box beat Randolph after Sanchez let the ball run, but the West Ham stopper was adamant the Chile international was offside and ran across his eye-line.
The Irishman was then called into action once again minutes later when he was out quickly at the feet of Welbeck to deny the England striker from poking home after Walcott's lay-off.
Walcott doubles lead
It had been coming, and Walcott duly swept home a second.
Sánchez flicked the ball to Özil, who left Cheikhou Kouyate and pulled the ball back for the winger to score his 19th goal in all competitions this season.
Arsenal certainly weren't giving up there and Bellerín had his second chance of the game after Sánchez's pass and shot inches wide of Randolph's goal.
It took 76 minutes for Martínez to be called into action when he had to beat away a rasping drive from Lanzini from 20 yards.
Subsititute Giroud completes hammering
The Gunners weren't to be denied a third and Giroud capped off a rampant second half seven minutes from time as he cut inside and bent into the far corner with his left foot out of reach of a helpless Randolph in the West Ham goal.