A HAMMERING FOR HAMMERS

Home fans leave early in their droves as double from Saka sets  up record romp

- John Cross

YOU really have never seen anything like it. 

It was Arsenal’s biggest away Premier League win, West Ham fans left in their thousands by half-time and surely even the celebration police would forgive the visitors enjoying this one.

Bukayo Saka claimed a brilliant double, exorcising ghosts from last season, while Declan Rice provided the best goal and did not celebrate out of respect for his old club.

Rice need not have worried. By the time he made it 6-0 most of the home supporters had gone anyway.

It was West Ham’s joint biggest home defeat, matching the 8-2 rout by Blackburn in December 1963, and the sort of humiliation that gets managers the sack.