West Ham United's reserve team made it five wins in a row on Monday evening with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Arsenal.
In a one-sided affair at Barnet's Underhill Stadium, early goals from Marlon Harewood and Hayden Mullins were enough to see an experienced Hammers side past their young opponents.
Coach Steve Brown named no fewer than nine senior players in his starting line-up, as the likes of Calum Davenport and Nigel Quashie continued their comebacks from injury, while Harewood, Mullins, Roy Carroll, Luis Boa Morte and Carlton Cole got some valuable action under their belts.
Hammers made the perfect start, opening the scoring after just three minutes, as Harewood received a pass on the right from Cole and fired a fierce low effort into the far corner of the net.
Just 15 minutes later, it was 2-0, as a corner dropped to Tony Stokes, whose blocked shot rebounded to Mullins. From 12 yards out, the midfielder made no mistake with a blistering drive into the roof of the net.
The two-goal cushion allowed Hammers to take full control and, although the young Gunners battled on bravely in an attempt to claw a goal back, they couldn't find a way past an experienced back four and rarely troubled Roy Carroll.
Harewood came close to adding a third goal when he rounded goalkeeper Vito Mannone early in the second half, but his effort hit the side-netting, while Boa Morte almost notched his first Hammers goal against his former club.
The victory made it five successive victories and five clean sheets in the last six matches for Hammers, but the evening ended on a sour note when young midfielder Jack Collison - on as a 70th minute substitute for Mullins - collapsed in a heap clutching his knee.
Having missed a large part of the season early on with a knee
problem, early fears were that the 18-year-old had suffered severe
injury, but only a scan on Tuesday will reveal the true extent of
the damage.
Hammers: Carroll; Panstil, Dailly, Davenport, Tomkins (Ngala 60), Boa-Morte; Stokes (Stanislas 60), Mullins (Collison 70), Quashie; Harewood, Cole. Subs unused: Miklosko, Jeffery.