WATCH: Late strike seals vital West Ham win over Chelsea

Aubameyang moved on to a half-century in 79 appearances in the competition as he dispossessed a dithering Tim Krul to open the scoring.

He then set up Granit Xhaka to make it 2-0 and doubled his tally on the day in the second half after Norwich forward Josip Drmic played the ball straight to him from a throw-in.

Cedric Soares scored on his debut to round off a victory that moves Arsenal within six points of Manchester United and Wolves in the race for the Champions League.

Aubameyang forced goalkeeper Krul into action in the 10th minute but only the woodwork stopped them from going behind as Ben Godfrey's rasping drive crashed against the left-hand post.

However, their good work was undone when Aubameyang robbed Krul as he looked to clear his lines and rolled into an empty net to reach his half-century.

Just four minutes later he laid on the second for Xhaka, who fired in from close range to give Norwich a mountain to climb.

Emiliano Martinez denied the visitors a route back into the game as he spectacularly kept out Kenny McLean's free-kick and he was needed again a minute after the restart to deny substitute Adam Idah.

Norwich pressed admirably in their efforts to halve the deficit but Drmic's inexplicable pass put it on a plate for Aubameyang, who coolly slotted home to make sure of the points before Cedric's deflected drive added late gloss.