I shall leave you, now, with Barney Ronay’s match report from the Emirates. Thanks for joining me today!
Aubameyang speaks! “Really proud [of his goal return] but first of all I’m really proud of the team, we deserved to win and did a great job. My performance was I think good and I’m always happy to help the team win.”
Will he sign a new deal?
“Now we’ll see, we’ll talk to the club and see what will happen, I’m focused on the games.”
Other scores
Everton 2-1 Leicester
Bournemouth 1-4 Newcastle
“I am very happy to see my team, Arsenal, do a good job today,” writes Paul Chintingiza, in Mozambique. Great to hear from you Paul and thanks for your company – we don’t often hear from readers in Mozambique.
Arsenal are seventh – for now, because Spurs and Sheffield United have games in hand – and six points behind Wolves & Manchester United. Where do they go on Saturday? Molineux. That looks a very big game in the season, now. They have plenty of room for improvement, as that early spell in the second half showed – but something is starting to go right for Mikel Arteta and company, you sense.
Norwich remain six points off West Ham, who are 17th, but their goal difference basically disadvantages them by a further point. It will need some turnaround from them. They do sometimes look very good, as we saw between minutes 46 and 65, but they were ultimately well beaten here and time is running out.
Full-time: Arsenal 4-0 Norwich
Pepe is wayward with a free-kick, and then that’s it. Arsenal put some real pressure on those Europa League spots, and possibly higher; Norwich edge closer to the drop.
90+1 min: We are in the first of three added minutes.
89 min: Idah, the young Norwich sub, has impressed me. Clearly a bright, direct striker but he makes good decisions on the ball too. He will do well.
87 min: I remember when Norwich were having a really good pop at this second half, but they’ve gone now. Arsenal get another corner and a few more balls fly around the box, but the visitors survive.
84 min: A Tierney ball into the box is just about defended ahead of Nketiah. Norwich really don’t want to concede five. They almost do though, Willock bending one agonisingly wide from 20 yards.
82 min: Pepe comes on now, for Aubameyang.
Goal! Arsenal 4-0 Norwich (Soares, 81)
Now *that* is the long-term deal Arsenal should be toasting! Soares has just come on and, when Xhaka’s corner is half-cleared, has a crack from 20 yards with his left foot. It takes a slight deflection and nestles in the corner!
Cedric Soares thumps home Arsenal’s fourth. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Pool/EPA
Soares celebrates with teammate David Luiz. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
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80 min: Willock does well and earns a corner. Time for number four? Well …
78 min: Ceballos goes down under a stray arm from Aarons, which didn’t look like much. The Spaniard has done well today, but the histrionics can be a bit much.
76 min: Stiepermann and Vrancic replace Cantwell and Rupp for Norwich, to bring up the five chances. David Luiz is in a little pain, meanwhile, and taking treatment. But he looks to be OK. We now see Nketiah replace Lacazette while Cedric Soares makes his long-awaited debut in place of Bellerin.
74 min: Holding goes on a bit of a novelty jink down the right but is crowded out. The sting has gone from this game now.
73 min: More subs imminent, Eddie Nketiah among them …
70 min: The last 20 minutes are a perfect microcosm of why Norwich will go down, for all their admirable ways. Couldn’t take advantage during a very good spell; made a silly and avoidable mistake to let more clinical opponents in at the other end.
Goal! Arsenal 3-0 Norwich (Aubameyang 67)
That’s sealed, then, and you sort of felt it might happen. It’s another Norwich howler, the substitute striker Drmic receiving a throw-in deep in his own half and then carefully laying it back … straight into Aubameyang’s path. He doesn’t miss those.
Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang controls the ball and surges forward … Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Before firing home. Photograph: Richard Pelham/NMC Pool
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66 min: Could have been three there though, Willock finding room after a poor touch from Tettey but driving well over from about 16 yards.
65 min: A Drmic drive is blocked. Norwich are finding all kinds of space when they pour forward. I guess they’ve little to lose but the difference in this half has been massive.
64 min: Lacazette has worked hard but just doesn’t seem right at all this season, to me.
62 min: Norwich are still having a proper go at this. Holding heads away a cross from Lewis, then Tierney hads to shepherd a Cantwell through ball out of play.
60 min: No penalty and, in any case, the possible foul on Cantwell was probably outside the box.
59 min: In case you were wondering whether one of the bottom three might, you know, get a result at some point … I can inform you that it’s currently Bournemouth 0-3 Newcastle. Hold on, VAR check for a Norwich penalty …
58 min: Maybe Joe Willock will perk Arsenal back up. He’s on for Nelson, who has done well if not spectacularly so.
57 min: Now Arsenal do produce something after a patient move but Bellerin, just as he seems set to tee up one of several waiting teammates for a third, stumbles near the byline.
55 min: I suspect this is Norwich’s “spell”, but these nonetheless look like completely different sides at the moment.
53 min: Close from Hernandez! Idah finds him on the left and the Cuban blazes one a foot or so off target. Arsenal could do with switching on, unless they want to make this a close-run thing.
52 min: Nothing from Arsenal in this half yet. A frustration throughout the season has been that they don’t put in many 90-minute performances.
50 min: David Luiz makes a foul and the Canaries have another tempting free-kick. It’s in McLean’s range but perhaps on the wrong side for his left foot. He opts for a cross and it sails out of play.
49 min: Norwich have gone for two up top and the wide threat of Hernandez. They’ve certainly come out with a bit more aggression and intent.
46 min: And Norwich almost get back into it! The young sub striker Idah does more than Pukki achieved in the entire first 45, snapping in a low 20-yarder that Martinez saves very smartly down to his left.
Substitutions! A triple change for Norwich!
Pukki, Trybull and Buendia are all off. Idah, Drmic and Hernandez are on.
One for Arsenal: Holding replaces Mustafi.
Emiliano Martinez did very well for that late save. He’s 27 and has been around for a decade but, look, he is seriously good and I do wonder if Bernd Leno has a massive fight on his hands when he gets back. Profiled him, with help from people who know him well, last week:
“At last – it’s been found! The one team in the Premier League, or perhaps football, who can make Arsenal look like intergalactic world beaters,” proclaims Charles Antaki.
Do you remember when Arsenal and Norwich shared seven goals and a 21-man brawl? Who knows, it might yet happen again today. But in case it doesn’t, this is a superb read from Steven Pye:
Half-time: Arsenal 2-0 Norwich
It’s a fair scoreline although Krul did give Arsenal a heck of a helping hand for the opener. The second goal was beautiful, though, and Norwich have spent most of the game under the cosh. They have come very close twice from range, mind you. If that last effort from McLean had gone in we could have expected a very different second half; in the event, you’d fancy Arsenal can score one or two more.
Updated
45+2 min: Super save by Martinez! He’s had nothing to do but McLean hits an absolute pearler from the set-piece and the keeper dives at full stretch to tip it behind!
45+1 min: Two additional minutes will be played. I’d imagine Norwich just want to get inside. But not before this free-kick, 25 yards out and won by Cantwell …
OptaJoe
(@OptaJoe)50 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored his 50th Premier League goal in fewer appearances (79) than any other @Arsenal player, and is the 6th fastest to this total among all Premier League players. Clinical. pic.twitter.com/YWjDZJzFsP
Aubameyang is so good; Arsenal really need to keep him.
43 min: This time Krul elects to clear a backpass under pressure. Norwich do spring forward after that but Rupp’s attempt to slip Cantwell in is a little underdone.
40 min: Arsenal should go for a statement victory here, because Norwich do look poor. That was Xhaka’s first goal of the season and the latest step in his rehabilitation from the Autumn unfortunateness. He tries for a second when another corner is aimed towards the edge of the box, but doesn’t catch it brilliantly and a defender blocks.
Goal! Arsenal 2-0 Norwich (Xhaka 37)
That is a lovely goal though. David Luiz pings it diagonally to Tierney quite beautifully, and he quickly plays in the breaking Aubameyang. In turn, Aubameyang prods first-time into the path of an onrushing Xhaka, who lashes low through Krul’s legs and probably puts this game to bed.
Granit Xhaka scores the second Arsenal goal. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
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37 min: Given they’ve scored that goal twice in a week, are Arsenal lucky? Dunno about that – their forwards are working really hard, chasing goalkeepers and defenders down, and I will forever question the efficacy of “building from the back” when it’s just not on. It’s OK not to, sometimes! You will still win games (even if you’re Norwich). And people will still watch games.
