Albion will go into the weekend six points clear of the drop zone after Bournemouth suffered a home humiliation.

The Cherries went down 4-1 to Newcastle and slipped to 19th place on goal difference.

It was a sorry evening for Eddie Howe’s men but hugely impressive from Newcastle, who have still to visit the Amex in the run-in.

Meanwhile Norwich, who host Albion on Saturday, lost 4-0 at Arsenal.

But West Ham have gone three points clear of the drop zone by beating Chelsea 3-2 in the later fixture.

 

 

Newcastle went ahead inside five minutes through Dwight Gayle.

Bournemouth midfielder Jefferson Lerma was caught in possession just outside his own box and Gayle was set free to produce a clinical finish into the bottom left corner.

They doubled their advantage with half an hour played thanks to Sean Longstaff's first league goal of the season.

Allan Saint-Maximin tricked his way past Adam Smith on the left before pulling the ball back for Longstaff to fire into the roof of the net.

Longstaff limped off shortly afterwards to be replaced by Miguel Almiron.

The Argus:

The sub added a super finish for the third just before the hour and Valentino Lazaro ran on to a through ball to add the fourth (pictured above).

Dan Gosling scrambled one home for Bournemouth from a set-piece deep into added time.

Arsenal took the lead shortly after the half-hour against Norwich.

Just like their opener at Southampton last week, they had much to owe the opposing goalkeeper as Tim Krul dawdled in possession before hitting his clearance straight at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - who had the simple task of rolling the ball home.

The lead was doubled moments later as Kieran Tierney played in Aubameyang, who cut the ball back for Granit Xhaka to rifle past Krul.

The Argus:

Aubameyang (pictured above) and Cedric Soares added second-half strikes.

Andriy Yarmolenko scored a late winner on the counter attack to take them to 30 points, three behind the Seagulls.

Willian gave Chelsea the lead with a first-half penalty and later pegged West Ham back to 2-2 with a spectacular free-kick.

The Hammers, spurred on by a sense of injustice at having a Tomas Soucek goal harshly disallowed by VAR at 0-0, had led 2-1 through Soucek and Michail Antonio.