Mikel Arteta's merciless Arsenal equalled an English football goalscoring record last achieved by Manchester City in 1937 with their 5-2 battering of West Ham United at the London Stadium.
The Gunners travelled across the English capital having resurrected their stuttering season after the November international break, prior to which they had gone four Premier League games without a win.
A routine 3-0 success over Nottingham Forest last weekend preceded a 5-1 crushing of Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, and Arsenal repeated their five-goal trick at the home of the Hammers.
On the ground where they marched to their biggest-ever Premier League away win last season - a 6-0 slaughter of David Moyes's men - the Gunners briefly looked capable of bettering that result when Gabriel Magalhaes, Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz struck inside the opening 36 minutes.
However, Julen Lopetegui's men threatened an almighty fightback when Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Emerson Palmieri suddenly cut the deficit in half, only for the hosts' brief revival to be stopped in its tracks when Lukasz Fabianski conceded an injury-time penalty by punching Gabriel in the head.
Arsenal match Man City, Sunderland feat in West Ham demolition
The ex-Arsenal goalkeeper got a hand to Saka's spot kick but could not prevent the Englishman restoring a three-goal Gunners cushion, although the less said about the second half from a neutral standpoint the better.
Nevertheless, Arteta's men never came any under real threat of losing their unassailable lead at the London Stadium, where they achieved a feat no English team has achieved in a staggering 87 years.
The Gunners have now scored at least five goals in five separate away games across all competitions in 2024, also thrashing West Ham (again), Sporting, Sheffield United and Burnley by such emphatic scorelines on the road.
Arsenal are just the third English top-flight team to do so after Sunderland and Man City, the former of whom struck five or more goals in five away games in 1892 before the reigning Premier League champions did so in 1937.
West Ham also played their part in equalling a Premier League record, as Saturday's engrossing London derby marked just the fourth time that a fixture in the competition has seen as many as seven goals in the first half.
Arsenal, West Ham match Manchester United 2012 record
No Premier League first half has ever seen more than seven goals, and the most recent encounter to include a septet of opening-45 strikes was Manchester United's 4-3 win over Reading in November 2012.
Before a handful of Arsenal players were born, Bradford City and Derby County shared seven goals in a 4-4 draw in 2000, while Leeds United's 4-3 win over Blackburn Rovers in 1997 also saw all seven goals come in the first half.
Arsenal's record-equalling victory over West Ham has temporarily lifted them into second place in the Premier League table, but the derby drubbing was not a totally perfect evening for Arteta and his medical team.
Goalscorer Gabriel had to come off during the half-time interval after the issue that he suffered against Sporting flared up, while Mikel Merino, Thomas Partey and Myles Lewis-Skelly were all absent due to injury.
Arteta provided a post-game update on Arsenal's injury situation ahead of Wednesday's visit of Man United, which knee victims Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu are both guaranteed to miss. body check tags ::
