The first trickle of supporters heading for the exits started after fifteen minutes. Yes, fifteen minutes.
Just a few at first but then, ten minutes later, that steady stream of the disappeared grew heavier. Because by then three goals had turned to four goals and embarrassment had turned to humiliation and the stripping of dignity.
What a night this was. For Arsenal and a title challenge that now has the momentum of a speeding truck. Two points off the top of the Premier League and with the biggest goal tally in the top flight. What was all that talk about needing a number nine?
And also, for all the wrong reasons, for Sheffield United, a team so lacking in fibre, heart and application that it’s a miracle anybody is still turning up to watch them at all.
Chris Wilder’s team had conceded five goals in each of their three previous home games, twice to Brighton and once to Aston Villa. Way back at the start of the season when we thought everything was Paul Heckingbottom’s fault, they had conceded eight here to Newcastle.
Martin Odegaard got the opening goal for Arsenal as they tore apart the bottom club
Sheffield United defender Jayden Bogle turned the ball into his own net for Arsenal’s second
The Blades looked out of their depth on paper, and it quickly transpired that way on the pitch
So maybe we should have expected this. Maybe another hiding was where the smart money should have been. But this is the Premier League. It calls itself the best league in the world and, as such, is supposed to be competitive.
So, no, we never expect something like this. We always expect the underdog team to fight, run and be a nuisance, at least for a while. But this is not what this was like at Bramall Lane on a wet night that will long live in the memory.
No this was men against boys. The can dos against the have no clues. As such it was a fabulous night for Mikel Arteta and his wonderful Arsenal team and an absolute horror for Wilder and his bottom-placed side. Not many present – young and old – will ever have witnessed much like this.
Arsenal scored three times in the first fifteen minutes and five times in the first half in total. They were invited to stroll through the game and duly did so. United were abject. Pathetic. A disgrace. The Arsenal scorers were Martin Odegaard, Jayden Bogle (og), Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and the wonderful Declan Rice.
In the second half – after a brief and rather overdue flurry of Sheffield United exertion – Arsenal scored again, full-back Ben White sweeping in Arsenal’s 10,000th goal in all competitions from the edge of the penalty area with his left foot.
It could, frankly, have been as many as Arsenal wished it to be. Substitutions understandably made to protect players from tiredness and indeed any belated Sheffield United aggression did disrupt the flow and the rhythm a little bit. So Wilder’s team escaped any further punishment.
On the touchline the Blades manager nevertheless looked bereft, a man in need of a lift home and a cup of tea. The problem is that when he turns up for work today the same players will be waiting for him.
Here, his problems began in just the second minute. Jorginho sent Bukayo Saka to the byline down the right and when his cross could not be converted by Rice the ball came back to him and he promptly hit the bar from an angle.
Kai Havertz got on the scoresheet as Arsenal ran riot in the first half at Bramall Lane
Ben White secured Arsenal’s sixth goal of the night just before the hour mark in Sheffield
Many Sheffield United fans opted to leave early after seeing their side concede so readily
The home support breathed a sigh of relief but the pattern of an incredible half of football was set. The writing was already on the wall and it was written in huge yellow and blue Arsenal letters.
The first goal arrived in the fifth minute and was the same as the all the others that quickly followed. Arsenal moved the ball accurately and quickly and the home team stood and watched it. No tackles, no energy, no running, no belief. No contest.
Martinelli played Rice in to space and his low cross was side-footed in by Odegaard. At one point in the build up, Odegaard had been marked by Vini Souza but by the time the ball arrived he had simply been allowed to step in to space. On the touchline Wilder turned and screamed his frustration in to the rain.
It was a perfect start for Arsenal and they carried on from there. In the 13th minute, United defender Bogle turned a low Saka cross in to his own net and then, two minutes later, a shot from Martinelli on the left flew in after a neat assist from left-back Jakub Kiwior.
Chris Wilder tried to change his side’s formation to stem the flow of Arsenal goals, to little avail
Mikel Arteta’s Gunners kept up their blistering form and retained pace with the league leaders
Wilder put Ben Osborn on and took Oliver Norwood off as he changed his team’s formation. But the flow didn’t change.
Home goalkeeper Ivo Grbic saved from Martinelli and then Havertz but when Martinelli was pulled back in the 25th minute, that only allowed Havertz to run in to space and the German drove the fourth goal in to the corner.
Mutiny was now in the air in South Yorkshire and by the time the interval arrived this stadium was awash with empty seats. It was, in truth, admirable so many had stayed and they had witnessed the fifth goal in the 39th minute, Rice firing in from a Saka pass..
The second half was different. It was, by comparison, a non-event. White scored beautifully just before the hour but there were to be no more plunges of the Arsenal dagger. At the end Sheffield United’s players were clapped off by those still in the stadium. Football supporters really are remarkable at times.
