Arsenal beat West Ham United 2-0 at Emirates Stadium
Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka score for Arsenal
Saka marked 200th league appearance with a goal
West Ham languish at 19th in the English Premier League
Arsenal put the pressure on Liverpool as they moved at least temporarily to the Premier League summit by comfortably beating West Ham 2-0.
Goals from former Hammers captain Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, who marked his 200th league appearance for the Gunners in style, ensured a routine victory for Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Arsenal were dominant from the off, as reflected by Mikel Arteta's team mustering 21 shots and 2.73 expected goals to West Ham's four attempts and 0.49 xG.
Eberechi Eze fired over the bar from a great early chance, while Saka had a goal disallowed before Rice came back to haunt his old team in the 38th minute.
Riccardo Calafiori struck the woodwork on the stroke of half-time, but Saka put the result beyond doubt with a 67th-minute penalty after Jurrien Timber was brought down by El Hadji Malick Diouf.
Callum Marshall, making his top-flight debut, failed to keep his header down from Lucas Paqueta's corner in additional time as West Ham failed to regularly threaten David Raya's goal.
While Arsenal have guaranteed themselves a place in the top two heading into the international break, West Ham sit 19th with four points from their seven matches.
Data Debrief: Saka and Arteta share milestone joy
It was a day of landmarks for Arsenal, and especially for Saka.
At 24 years and 29 days, he became the seventh-youngest player to make 200 Premier League appearances, while he was also the seventh-youngest player in the competition's history to reach 100 goal involvements, and the youngest since Romelu Lukaku in February 2017 (23 years, 267 days).
Saka has scored 55 goals and provided 45 assists in the English top-flight, seeing him become the eighth Arsenal player to reach that milestone and third Englishman after Ian Wright (123) and Theo Walcott (108). He also joined Thierry Henry as the only players to score on his 200th Premier League appearances for the Gunners.
Arteta, meanwhile, recorded his 177th win in his 300th match as Arsenal boss. Only Pep Guardiola at Manchester City (219), Jose Mourinho at Chelsea (196) and Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool (185) have registered more wins as a manager of an English side in their first 300 top-flight games.
