Ten 4s for WBA; Kieran Tierney and Bukayo Saka both get 9: West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal player ratings

Third straight Premier League win for the Gunners

WEST BROMWICH ALBION RATINGS: 
Sam Johnstone 6 – Once again the goalkeeper had to pick the ball out of his net several times, but there was little he could about any of them. Prevented the score from being worse. Cut a disconsolate figure at the end. EPA

Darnell Furlong 4 – The right-back was beaten far too easily by Tierney, twice, for Arsenal’s opening goal, and he had a tough evening attempting to keep Aubameyang, Lacazette and Tierney in check.
 EPA

Semi Ajayi 4 – He was slow to close down Tierney for the first goal and failed to clear his lines for the Gunners’ third. A disappointing evening.
 Getty

Dara O’Shea 4 – Arsenal continually looked to exploit O’Shea in the makeshift left-back position, and he couldn’t get close to Tierney. Was given a fairly torrid time.
 EPA

Branislav Ivanovic 4 – The Serb is a shadow of his former self, brushed off the ball easily by Lacazette and second best in the centre until he was taken off for what looked like a tweaked hamstring.
 AP

Romaine Sawyers 4 – A second poor performance in three days, as Sawyers was given the run around by Arsenal’s sprightly midfield.
 Reuters

Matheus Pereira 5 – Was arguably the Baggies’ brightest spark going forward, once playing a delightful ball to Matt Phillips. Yet as the goals went in he became more and more anonymous.
 Getty

Matt Phillips 4 – He at least forced Leno into making a save, but overall he could do little to influence the game against Ceballos and Xhaka.
 EPA

Conor Gallagher 4 – So often one of the Baggies’ most consistent performers, even he was off his game. Saw a speculative effort from range comfortably saved and was then booked, which means he’ll miss the derby against Wolves.
 Getty

Grady Diangana 4 – Could do very little to prevent Saka running riot on Arsenal’s right whether playing in a wide midfield or wing-back position.
 AP

Callum Robinson 4 – Saw a goal disallowed for offside early in the second half, which was unlucky as that was his only contribution in and around the Arsenal box.
 PA

SUBS: Charlie Austin (Diangana, 45) 5 – The striker made a nuisance of himself, once getting a shooting opportunity but firing over the bar. Looks low on confidence. AP

Kyle Bartley (Ivanovic 66) 4 – Came on to face his old club but could do little to prevent them from putting Albion under pressure. EPA

Rakeem Harper (Phillips) N/A – The midfielder could do little to stem the tide of Arsenal attacks in the closing stages.
 AP

ARSENAL RATINGS: Bernd Leno 
6 – A second clean sheet in as many games. Leno had a quiet night other than two comfortable saves. EPA

Hector Bellerin 6 – Solid but unspectacular, the Spaniard linked well with Bukayo Saka on the right-hand side. Getty

Rob Holding 7 – Holding looked strong at the back alongside Mari and even added another assist, his second in two games, when he passed to Tierney to score the first. EPA

Pablo Mari 8 – Looked cool, calm and collected whenever defending or playing the ball out from the back. Looked extremely solid and is certainly doing his best to cement his place in the side. EPA

Kieran Tierney 9 – The left-back was superb at both ends of the pitch, but particularly in the attacking third. He opened the scoring with a beautiful finish with his right foot, before delivering the perfect cross for Lacazette to make it four. EPA

Granit Xhaka 7 – One of Xhaka’s better games. He protected the back four well and played the simple passes to let others move forward. Getty

Dani Ceballos 7 – A solid performance alongside Xhaka. He looked to get Arsenal on the attack at every opportunity whether with a long or short pass. AFP

Emile Smith-Rowe 8 – The 20-year-old impressed again and looked very neat and tidy in and around the West Brom box. He played a huge part in Arsenal’s second, squaring the ball for Saka to tap home. AFP

Bukayo Saka 9 – Scintillating performance from the right, where he cut in with devastating effect. His crosses had West Brom’s defence all over the place, while he managed to finish a move he helped start for the Gunners’ second. Reuters

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7 – He had to watch on as those around got in goalscoring positions. Had one chance to score, and didn’t, but linked the play well. AFP

Alexandre Lacazette 8 – The Frenchman worked really hard to hold the ball up and bring others into play, and he was rewarded with two goals when the play opened up in the second half. His first was a solid rebound, the second a volley from Tierney’s cross. Reuters

SUBS: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Bellerin 54) 6 – Looked solid and slotted in seamlessly to the right-back position. PA

Willian (Saka, 70) 6 – Came on with 20 minutes left and created an opportunity, but ultimately will know his place in the starting XI is very much under threat. Reuters

Joe Willock (Smith-Rowe, 77) N/A – Looked neat and tidy for the last 13 minutes but by then the game was won. Getty

Manager Mikel Arteta insisted Arsenal have taken the handbrake off after their 4-0 rout of West Brom.

Alexandre Lacazette's second-half brace and fine strikes from Kieran Tierney and Bukayo Saka earned a dominant victory at the Hawthorns and the Gunners have now won three straight games in the Premier League for just the second time under Arteta.

They rose to 11th, three points behind the top six, just weeks after their season threatened to collapse and Arteta was being questioned - but the boss can see progress.

"This is as close as it gets to what we want," he said. "This is an Arsenal team with the idea I want. There were certain moments when we were very close to that. The players had the handbrake off and you can see they are free to play.

"There were moments when we were really good, both defensively and offensively.

"This is exactly what we want the players to do. The energy and the momentum is much more positive.

"It is always tough to win away from home and we have done it in a really convincing way. It's three in a row and we had talked about the importance of this week."

West Brom have now lost their last two home games 5-0 and 4-0 and have conceded 12 times in Sam Allardyce's three matches at the Hawthorns.

They were outclassed again by the Gunners to leave them second from bottom, six points from safety, and Allardyce knows where they have to improve.

"We have to battle on as a team, we can only do the things we need to do better than we're doing now. That is, first and foremost, to stop giving sloppy goals away.

"We need to be more resilient in terms of our defending and, until we get clean sheets, we won't get enough points to move up the table because we haven't got any proven Premier League scorers in our squad."

Player ratings from the match can be seen in the gallery above. To view the next image, click on the arrows or swipe on the picture.