With the momentum of a speeding truck, Arsenal strip Blades of all dignity
THE first trickle of supporters heading for the exits started after 15 minutes. Yes, 15 minutes.
Just a few at first but then, 10 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 all the momentum of a speeding truck. And 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, we should remember, conceded five goals in each of their previous three home games, twice to Brighton and once to Aston Villa. Way back at the start of the
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season when we thought everything was Paul Heckingbottom’s fault, they had conceded eight to Newcastle.
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-noclues. As such it was a fabulous night for Mikel Arteta and his wonderful Arsenal team and an absolute horror show for Wilder and his bottom-placed team. Not many present — young and old — will ever have witnessed much like this. Arsenal scored three times in the first 15 minutes and five times in the first half in total. They were invited to stroll through the game and duly did so.
The scorers were Martin Odegaard, Jayden Bogle (in his own net), 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 their 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.
The danger for Sheffield United was written right across the team sheet. It looked a mismatch on paper and, within a couple of minutes of the game starting, it looked like one on grass, too.
Just over a minute had passed when Jorginho sent Bukayo Saka to the byline down the right. Rice could not convert Saka’s cross but the ball came back to him and he hit the bar from an angle.
The home supporters breathed a sigh of relief but the pattern of this incredible night was set. The writing was on the wall and it was in huge yellow-and-blue Arsenal letters.
Arteta’s team were hungry, quick and clinical. Wilder’s were unforgivingly and astonishingly bad. When the third goal went in on the quarter-hour, Wilder went to a five-man defence. By then the horse had bolted and was galloping down the M1.
The first goal arrived in the fifth minute and was the same as all the others that quickly followed. Arsenal moved the ball accurately and quickly and the home team stood and watched. No tackles, no energy, no running, no belief. No contest.
Like much of the early play, the danger came down an Arsenal flank, on this occasion the left. Martinelli played Rice into 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 been allowed to step into space. On the touchline, Wilder turned and screamed his frustration into the rain.
It was a perfect start for Arsenal and they ramped it up from there. In the 13th minute, Blades defender Bogle turned a low Saka cross into his own net when he could have allowed the ball to run past him. Two minutes later, a shot from Martinelli on the left flew in after a neat assist from left back Jakub Kiwior.
Wilder put Ben Osborn on and took Oliver Norwood off as he changed his team’s formation. Doubtless, he felt he had to do something. But the flow didn’t change. Ivo Grbic saved Martinelli’s effort from long range and then a close-up Havertz volley.
But when Martinelli was pulled back in the 25th minute, that only allowed Havertz to run into space and the German drove the fourth goal into 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, a miracle so many had stayed and they witnessed the fifth goal in the 39th minute, Rice firing in from a Saka pass. Once again, the Arsenal players had been afforded all the time and space in the world in which to work.
For 10 minutes after half-time, United remembered they were supposed to be a Premier League football team. They raised their levels and that briefly got the crowd involved.
Arsenal remained so superior to them, however, that the pendulum soon swung back the other way. Indeed, you know it’s your day when White is scoring from 18 yards with his left foot and that’s what happened just before the hour when Havertz set him up on the right side of the penalty area.