LONDON: Arsenal opened up a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League as Gabriel Martinelli struck twice in a 4-0 thrashing of relegation-threatened Everton at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool moved into the top six as goals from Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah deepened Wolves’ relegation fears with a 2-0 defeat at Anfield.

Arsenal were initially frustrated by their struggling visitors but goals by Bukayo Saka and Martinelli shortly before halftime put them in command as they took maximum advantage of their game in hand over Manchester City.

Captain Martin Odegaard made it 3-0 with a close-range finish in the 71st minute before Brazilian Martinelli grabbed his second to complete the rout.

A third victory in succession lifted Mikel Arteta’s side to 60 points from 25 games with champions City on 55.

Everton had actually looked capable of taking something from the game. But once they fell behind a 14th league defeat of the season was almost a formality.

They remained third from bottom with 21 points having played a game more than all the teams around them.

Dangerman Saka had been relatively quiet but he burst into life to make the breakthrough in the first half.

Given far too much time to turn after receiving a pass from Odegaard on the right edge of the penalty area, he smashed an angled shot into the roof of the net.

Everton’s Idrissa Gueye gifted Arsenal a second on the stroke of halftime. The midfielder was cau­ght napping by Saka who nicked the ball away from him before poking a pass to Martinelli who slipped his shot past Jordan Pickford.

The visitors thought they had been spared by an offside flag but a VAR decision overturned it and Arsenal went in at halftime to chants of “we are top of the league” from the home fans.

With only 17 league goals all season it looked a tall order for shot-shy Everton to salvage anything and they offered next to nothing after the break.

Odegaard fired in his side’s third from Leandro Trossard’s cut back and Martinelli confirmed the gulf between the sides late on by tapping in from Eddie Nketiah’s assist.

In the other match of the day, Jurgen Klopp’s men were again far from the force of recent seasons, but have now taken 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four league games to remain in the hunt for a top-four finish.

The Reds close to within six points of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand over Spurs still to come.

Wolves remain just three points above the relegation zone in 15th as the visitors were made to pay once more for the lack of a goal threat going forward.

A fourth meeting between the sides in less than two months bred boredom rather than contempt for the first 45 minutes.

Harvey Elliott headed wide the best chance of the opening half and then tested Jose Sa with a drive from outside the box.

One week on from Liverpool’s record-equalling home European defeat in a 5-2 humiliation at the hands of Real Madrid, there was far less to get the crowd at Anfield off their feet.Diogo Jota helped in breaking the deadlock as he teed up Van Dijk to head into an unguarded net after Sa had parried the Dutch centre-back’s first effort.

The home side’s second goal was much more like the Liverpool of old as Wolves were cut open by a rapid counter attack.

Konstantinos Tsimikas played a one-two with Cody Gakpo before the Greek galloped into the Wolves box and picked out Salah to force the ball in with his thigh for his 20th goal of the season.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2023