Arsenal 4 Watford 0

Arsenal produced their best performance in months yesterday, beating Watford 4-0 in a game that they wholly controlled throughout. They beat Watford 4-0 and looked like what they ought to be, a team hungrily hunting for the title.

And yet those three points leave them still eight off the top with seven games left. The chances of both Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur collapsing badly enough for Arsenal to win the league are still slim at best.

There was much to admire about this performance, especially from Alex Iwobi, who made the first goal and scored the second. Arsene Wenger praised their “good flow, good style and technical quality”, afterwards, and rightly so. Quique Sanchez Flores said afterwards he could not remember another Premier League team playing than Arsenal this season.

So it is not unfair to ask where this Arsenal team was in January and February, when they won just two from a run of nine Premier League games, the spell that cost them first place.

Had Arsenal played with this conviction and precision when they lost at home to Chelsea or Swansea, or drew here with Southampton, then they would now be far nearer the top than they are. They have let the gap grow so big that it would take an optimistic fan to back them from here.

Wenger did not allow himself to talk about any title challenge afterwards. “We don’t know exactly what is needed,” he said. “But what is needed, for sure, is to keep the quality high.”

This was a very different Arsenal team from the brittle side that lost 2-1 to Watford here in the FA Cup just three weeks ago. Instead, they moved the ball quickly, trying to find their way around Watford’s tight ranks. It only took four minutes for them to do that well enough take the lead.

Alex Iwobi, hailed as “fearless and mobile” by Wenger, quickly drifted into space and curled a cross towards the far post. Alexis Sanchez forced his way in front of left-back Nathan Ake. Heurelho Gomes saved Sanchez’s header, but could not stop the follow up.

The lead gave Arsenal control of the game and from then on they were the only team in it. Any prospect of a nervy second half was ended by a smart second goal just before the break. Francis Coquelin found Sanchez on the right, and he pulled the ball across to Iwobi, who sweetly swept in his second senior goal.

With a 2-0 lead against unmotivated opposition, the second half was a stroll for Arsenal, and the third came soon. Nyom could not clear Sanchez’s cross far enough, the ball fell to Hector Bellerin and his shot deflected off Ben Watson, over Gomes and in.

Just when the match looked done, Arsenal still found the purpose to score a fourth. Ozil played a brilliant ball out to Joel Campbell, who skipped away from Nyom and crossed to Theo Walcott, who finished simply. This was the Arsenal these fans had been waiting for months for. Where had they been until now?

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal; Elneny, Coquelin; Sanchez (Campbell, 78), Ozil, Iwobi (Walcott, 73); Welbeck (Giroud, 68)

Watford (4-4-1-1): Gomes; Nyom, Prodl, Cathcart, Ake; Abdi (Guedioura, 68), Watson, Suarez, Capoue (Anya, 42); Deeney; Ighalo (Amrabat, 45)

Man of the match: Iwobi

Match rating: 7/10