11 February 2024 , 18:22
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William Saliba has admitted Arsenal's previous defeats to West Ham handed the Gunners extra motivation for Sunday's demolition of David Moyes' men.
The Hammers dumped Mikel Arteta's side out of the Carabao Cup in November, before claiming a shock 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League at the end of December. The Gunners finally got their revenge for those defeats on Sunday though.
Inspired by a powerhouse performance from former West Ham captain Declan Rice, Arsenal humiliated their hosts with a 6-0 win. Goals from Rice, Saliba, Gabriel and Leandro Trossard, plus a double from Bukayo Saka ensured it was a comfortable afternoon for the visitors.
The win means they are now just two points behind leaders Liverpool, having beaten the Reds last week. And Saliba has revealed that his side's two defeats to West Ham earlier this season gave them all the motivation they needed to set things right.
"Very good win today because West Ham beat us twice this season and we wanted to do well today. And we did well, scored six goals, clean sheet and that's a very good result today," Saliba told beIN Sports.
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"When a team beats you, you want to beat them. They're the only team to beat us twice this season so we had the chance to win today and we did it well. It was a good mentality from the team.
"We know there is some games yet, so we'll give everything, we'll take it game by game. Now, we are focused on the next game, after that we'll focus on the next game and so on. And we will see at the end."
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who was the player of the match as Arsenal hammered West Ham? Comment below.
Saliba scored the opening goal as Arsenal claimed a dominant 6-0 win (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)Boss Arteta also used his side's previous defeats to the Hammers as motivation. The Spaniard opened up on his team talk ahead of the game which set the stage for a totally dominant win for the Gunners.
"Time to beat West Ham," he said when asked what his message to his team had been. "We all knew it, we all had it in our tummies and we knew that it was going to be a really tough match, and we have to do certain things better especially in both boxes than in the previous match.
"We certainly did that today. We want to learn, that we want to be better every single week and that we are not satisfied. After the Liverpool game, we have to show now that we have the capacity to replicate that level or be better.
"That’s the way the boys trained the whole week. We certainly want to do that and play in the opponents’ box as much as possible. And you’re going to provoke that normally, and today we have managed to do that very well.
"We are maintaining and building some momentum now, and the performances have been really strong, as well as the results in recent weeks. We need to maintain that because the other teams are doing it as well, we are not the only ones, and we need to recognise that."
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