Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his first ever Premier League hat-trick as Arsenal bounced back to beat Leeds United 4-2 at the Emirates.
Going into Sunday’s clash the Gunners had failed to win their last three games.
They raced into a four-goal lead with little over 45 minutes played, with Hector Bellerin also among the goals, before Leeds pulled two back thanks to Pascal Struijk and Helder Costa in the second-half.
Arsenal broke the 13th minute as Aubameyang skipped inside Luke Ayling and shot low past Ilan Meslier.
A dramatic five minutes saw Bukayo Saka awarded a penalty which was then overturned by VAR – before the Gunners forward won another one moments later.
While the first was debatable, there was nothing contentious about the second as Meslier took a heavy touch and wiped out the Arsenal man.
Aubameyang made no mistake from 12 yards, sending Meslier the wrong way on 41 minutes.
On the stroke of halftime Arsenal went 3-0 ahead through Bellerin who fired past Meslier at his near post to make it three.
Arsenal picked up where they left off in the first-half and went 4-0 up on 47 minutes as Aubameyang completed his hat-trick by nodding home a delightful chip from Emile Smith Rowe.
Struijk and Costa made things interesting by halving the Gunners’ lead with 20 minutes to go, but Mikel Arteta’s men held firm to climb 10th place on 34 points.
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What a player Bukayo Saka is. That boy is dynamite. I saw it in him long ago, when he was still in the Arsenal youth system.
His performance today against Leeds is one of the best individual efforts I’ve seen in a long while.
Saka was the main man in the Arsenal attack. Most of the chances created came from him. He gave the Leeds defenders a torrid, torrid time with his dribbling and passes.