Ben White provides final humiliation as Arsenal run wild at Sheffield United | first division

Nights like this, under the lights in the pouring rain and against a rival with nothing to lose, when your two main rivals I have already won at the beginning of the weekend, are those in which the challenges for the title can take an unexpected turn.

However, the only problem with this is that no one showed up to inform Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side. The only thing that fell here on a miserable Monday afternoon in South Yorkshire were the records.

Arsenal have been sensational in the Premier League since the start of the year and this is their seventh consecutive league win to move them. two points behind Liverpool At the top, there was another night that reinforced how this group is immune to the kind of mistakes their predecessors suffered. Yes, Arsenal were expected to win against a team sinking back into the Championship, but the form of this display was brilliant.

Five ahead before the break, the fluidity with which Arsenal wasted Sheffield United It would certainly have made Liverpool and Manchester City take notice. They are the first team in English football to win three consecutive away games by five or more goals and, perhaps most importantly, they now have a superior goal difference over their two title rivals.

As for Sheffield United, the Championship awaits them next season after another damning indictment of how far they are behind. first division quality they are.

The writing was on the wall for the hosts from the start. Arsenal could and perhaps should have taken the lead in the first minute, opening up the Blades defense with a glorious wall to allow Bukayo Saka to slot in for Declan Rice. His shot was blocked before Saka's half-volley hit the crossbar and Gabriel Martinelli had a shot cleared off the line. However, the visitors did not have to wait long to open the scoring: two minutes, in fact.

Martinelli connected magnificently with Rice, with the latter's perfect ball crossing the goal and being hit into the empty net by Martin Ødegaard. That simply served to encourage Arsenal even more and, by the time the match reached 20 minutes, it was already decided by two more goals of the highest quality. Saka gave former Arsenal defender Auston Trusty a terrible night and, as he passed to the full-back with sheer ease, his cross-goal ball was deflected by a helpless Jayden Bogle into his own goal to make it 2-0.

Two minutes later, it was three o'clock. The hosts simply could not live with Arsenal's huge array of attacking options and this time it was Martinelli who was the main beneficiary, returning home after being given a goal inside the box by Jakub Kiwior. Chris Wilder made one change, sacrificing Oliver Norwood to revert his team to a back five, but the damage had already been done.

He could only offer Norwood an apologetic pat on the head as he substituted him but, like his manager, some of the home fans had seen enough and left before a quarter of the game had elapsed, if you can call it that. call that. . That handful of fans heading for the exits became a kind of mass exodus when the inevitable fourth goal arrived before the half-hour mark.

This time it was Kai Havertz who made the most of the home team's even more insipid defense; Anel Ahmedhodzic brought down Martinelli as he broke free, but Havertz collected the ball and coolly beat Ivo Grbic to make it four. Is Arsenal over? The hosts were clearly woeful, but Arsenal, and Saka in particular, were magnificent, with the England winger slotting past Ben Osborn before pulling one back for Rice to score Arsenal's fifth goal. At halftime, it was simply a matter of how many records would fall by the end of the night.

Arteta opted to protect Saka by substituting him at half-time, but that did not stop the flow of goals. The sixth came before the hour mark, when wonderful control from Havertz helped Ben White superbly beat Grbic. The local supporters who had stayed (and the number was dwindling by the minute) were now witnessing a procession. The only scare for Arteta was a blow to Martinelli, when he sounded the changes for the final quarter introducing, among others, the return of Thomas Partey.

The only small mercy for the locals was that at least they avoided conceding goals again in those final minutes. But it mattered little and Arsenal's minds would have already shifted to Saturday, when victory over Brentford would put them at the top. Before Liverpool and City meet on Sunday. Few would object to them doing that in this form.