Arsenal tore West Ham apart in a one-sided display that brought five goals, a stream of chances and a scoreline that still failed to reflect the scale of the dominance.
The breakthrough came early, when Stina Blackstenius seemed to apply the faintest touch to a fierce cross from the left by Chloe Kelly, a move that immediately exposed the gap in confidence and quality between the two sides.
Arsenal never really looked back. They controlled the game from the opening whistle, created chances at will and spent long periods camped in West Ham territory.
The margin should have been much wider by half-time. Kelly, Alessia Russo, Olivia Smith and Blackstenius all had multiple chances in the first half, with Arsenal repeatedly finding space and forcing the visitors back but blowing their final lines.
Two minutes into the second half, Russo made it 2-0 with a deft looping header as the scoreline started to take on a more respectable scoreline.
Any lingering doubt over the result disappeared soon after. Smith struck the bar early in the second half with an Ezesque effort, but Arsenal’s third arrived in the 55th minute when Kelly found the opposite bottom corner with a left-footed strike from outside the box.
It was a finish of real quality, and by that point Arsenal had long since reduced West Ham to hanging on.
There was then a lengthy stoppage after a serious injury to Eva Nystrom, who had raced back to stop Blackstenius when she was clean through. Play was halted for nearly 13 minutes before Nystrom was stretchered off, and everyone here hopes the injury is not as serious as it first appeared. After the game, West Ham manager Rita Guarino told Freddie Cardy that the injury it did not seem to be, which is good news.
Even that interruption did little to disturb the home side’s rhythm.
10 minutes after the restart, Arsenal had a fourth.
Kelly seized on a gift from a West Ham defender inside the box to claim her second of the afternoon, a moment that summed up Arsenal’s sharpness and the visitors’ collapse.
Beth Mead, introduced in the 63rd minute, added the fifth in the 90th minute.
The stats only reinforced what the eye had already seen.
Arsenal had 65 per cent of possession, 23 shots to West Ham’s one, 11 efforts on target, five big chances and 500 accurate passes at 88 per cent to West Ham’s 233 (78%).
After the game, Blackstenius’s goal was awarded to Kelly to complete a hattrick for the winger.
From start to finish, this was Arsenal Women overwhelming West Ham in every department, pressing hard, moving the ball well and winning by a margin that arguably flattered the opposition.
The result leaves them well positioned to take second place in the league. With two games in hand on Manchester United and Chelsea, they are three and two points behind both respectively.