Arsenal hit the goal trail again with five past Burnley
Picture: Game Of Bukayo Byrne/pa During Side's Arsenal's Third The Celebrates At Wire Goal Match Their League Turf Scoring The Peter Moor, Premier Saka Burnley
Bukayo Sako continued his hot streak as Arsenal outclassed Burnley at rain-swept Turf Moor to maintain their Premier League title challenge with a fifth straight win.
Since a mid-winter blip when they managed only three goals in a seven-game run that raised question marks over their championship credentials and led to calls for Mikel Arteta to sign a striker in the January transfer window, the Gunners have answered their critics emphatically by going goal crazy.
This five-star performance came on the back of a 6-0 win at West Ham and means the Gunners have now scored 21 goals in their last five games with Saka leading the way by netting six in the last four fixtures.
After watching title rivals Liverpool hit four past Brentford in the lunchtime kick-off, Arteta's slick-passing team went one better as they made club history by winning their first five League games at the start of a calendar year for the first time.
Burnley boss Vincent Kompany had to sit in the stands after picking up his third booking of the season at Anfield last week and looked on in despair at some calamitous defending by his team who looked destined to drop straight back to the Championship.
To be fair, few teams could match Arsenal in their current blistering form which underlines they are serious rivals to Liverpool and Manchester City.
They took the lead from their first attack after only four minutes when Martin Odegaard rifled home a fine shot from the edge of the area - and they never looked back.
Saka converted a penalty five minutes before the break after Leandro Trossard had been felled by Lorenz Assignon's injudicious challenge.
And the England winger took only a minute of the second half to add his second - and Arsenal's third - by firing into the roof of the net after a fine pass by the impressive Odegaard.
It was game over but the day got worse for the hapless Clarets when Aaron Ramsey had to be stretchered off with what looked a serious knee injury.
And their problems deepened when the ever-dangerous Trossard added the fourth from close range by making the most of a lucky rebound off Charlie Taylor before the much-maligned Kai Havertz capped a fine performance by 'nut-mugging' Hannes Delcroix and firing the fifth past James Trafford after 78 minutes.
6; Assignon 4 (Vitinho 79, 4), O'Shea 5, Esteve 5 (Taylor 62, 5) ), Delcroix 5; A Ramsey 5 (Rodriguez 62, 5), Berge 5, Brownhill 5, Odobert 4 (Bruun Larsson 79, 4); Fofana 5, Amdouni 4 (Gudmundsson 46, 5).
Cork, Manuel, Cullen, Muric.
Booked: Ramsey.
Raya 6; White 7 (Soares 68, 6), Gabriel 7, Saliba 7, Kiwior 7; Ødegaard 9, Rice 7, Havertz 8 (Smith Rowe 83, 6); Saka 8 (Nelson 68, 6), Trossard 8 (Nketiah 68, 6), Martinelli 7.
Ramsdale, Jorginho, Elneny, Bandeira, Sweet.
Goals; Odegaard 4, Saka pen 40, 46, Trossard 66, Havertz 78.
Booked; Saka.
Jarred Gillett.