Bukayo Saka grabbed his 50th and 51st goals in Arsenal colours against West Ham [Pedro Soares]

AFTER watching his side smash six goals past West Ham on Sunday, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta sent out a stark warning to the Gunners’ title rivals: my players are never satisfied.

Hammering the Hammers 6-0 at the London Stadium was the perfect follow-up act after beating Liverpool 3-1 the previous weekend. The north Londoners will now be looking to make it five league wins on the bounce this Saturday when they travel to Turf Moor to tackle a struggling Burnley squad that hasn’t won a single game this year.

Asked what the ruthless display against West Ham showed him about his team, Arteta said: “That we want to learn, that we want to be better every single week and that we are not satisfied. After the Liverpool game, we had to show that we have the capacity to replicate that level, or be better, and that’s the way the boys trained the whole week.”

The Gunners boss added: “We are maintaining and building some momentum now, and the performances have been really strong, as well as the results in recent weeks. We need to maintain that, because the other teams are doing it as well, we are not the only ones, and we need to recognise that.”

Bukayo Saka grabbed his 50th and 51st goals in Arsenal colours against West Ham, before roaring: “We smelled blood and went for the kill”.

Arteta, however, played down any talk of smelling blood in the title race. He said: “What I want as a team is for them to be better and better. The way they trained this week, they were totally focused after Liverpool to say: ‘OK, now it’s a big task and now it’s time to go to another level and beat West Ham.’ And they certainly did that.”

Saka’s brace also took him to 100 goal involvements for the club, and Arteta believes the 22-year-old will “only get better”. He also praised the forward for taking, and scoring, a penalty having missed a spotkick on the same ground last season as Arsenal’s title charge collapsed.

“Physically, it’s tough, but he can only get better because he wants more,” he said. “And what he has done today as well, I had doubts that he was going to take the penalty or not because of what happened [last season], but it shows as well how mature he is and how determined he is to go to the next level.”

Saka was subbed shortly after the hour mark on Sunday. Was there ever any thoughts in Arteta’s mind of leaving the England man on the pitch to get his hat-trick?

“No,” insisted the Spaniard after the game. “I thought that it was time [to take him off]. He has played so many minutes so we had to give him a rest and to give an opportunity to someone else to step in.”