Two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and one each from Granit Xhaka and Cedric Soares gave Arsenal a comfortable win over Norwich, who are as good as down, and with good reason.
They stay bottom of the Premier League table, while Arsenal move above Tottenham into seventh.
Arsenal dominated possession from the off and created a few decent chances, but it was Norwich who came closest to scoring when Ben Godfrey hit the post with a strike from distance.
When the Gunners did break the deadlock in the 33rd minute it was only because Tim Krul forgot that he was Tim Krul, trying to diddle Aubameyang, who quickly robbed him to score his 50th Premier League goal into an empty net. Then, on 37 minutes, Arsenal effectively finished the game, Granit Xhaka finishing off a lovely move.
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Somehow, Norwich’s players – some of whom played 120 minutes in the FA Cup at the weekend, only to lose at the death – forced themselves to come out for the second half, but they probably wished they hadn’t.
For 20 minutes or so they were excellent, and then Josip Drmic played a blind pass directly to Aubameyang, who scored easily.
Very little happened thereafter as Arsenal conserved energy and Norwich avoided further punishment, then Norwich were punished further, Soares marking his Arsenal debut with a goal five minutes after coming on, via deflection – a rather neat summation of the match for both teams.
