Petr Cech held up Arsenal’s thumping weekend win over West Ham as proof that the Gunners can handle the pressure of going for the title.

The veteran goalkeeper, four times a Premier League winner with Chelsea, said the Blues’ victory over Manchester City in the early kick-off had heaped more pressure on Arsenal to win away at West Ham and keep pace with the league leaders.

Arsenal dominated the London Stadium encounter but only made the game safe with a flurry of late goals as they ran out 5-1 winners.

Cech said Arsene Wenger’s side had been ‘professional’ in dealing with what he felt had become a must-win game to stay with three points of his old club.

“It became a kind of must-win game for us when Chelsea won and obviously the gap opened to six points,” Cech told the club’s website.

“We knew what we had to do and we did it in a very professional way, so we are happy.” Cech concedes that there would have been doubters when Arsenal were being frustrated by West Ham and their goalkeeper Darren Randolph.

Arsenal are unbeaten in 13 Premier League games since losing to Liverpool on the opening weekend of the season and Cech was more than happy with how they dealt with West Ham.

“We a lot of opportunities in the first half but it wouldn’t go in. In the second half at 1-0 their keeper made some fantastic saves and you think it could still be a dangerous scoreline,” he added.

“I know a lot of people would have been a bit anxious, but we showed the maturity not to panic and we kept going. We thoroughly deserved the goals for our performance.”

Arsenal are 7.50 to win the Premier League this season. The Gunners are 1.36 to beat Stoke on Saturday.