No team in the 136-year history of English league football had won three consecutive away games by five or more goals before Arsenal took to the Bramall Lane pitch on Monday night. But Sheffield United quickly went the same way as West Ham and Burnley in recent weeks.

The Gunners set their stall out early when Bukayo Saka whacked the bar with not much more than a minute on the clock, and it took barely any longer than that for Martin Odegaard to fire them ahead from the middle of the penalty area in South Yorkshire.

Jayden Bogle’s own goal doubled that lead in the 13th minute after he inadvertently turned Saka’s teasing low cross into the net, while it was then 3-0 almost instantly when Arsenal easily cut through the Blades and Gabriel Martinelli scored with the help of a slight deflection. It was 4-0 after 24 minutes thanks to Kai Havertz’s low finish after Martinelli had pinched the ball high up the pitch.

By the time, Declan Rice got the fifth in the closing stages of the first half, the stands had visibly emptied as disbelieving home fans trudged off into the night. The intensity was slightly less after the break as it took almost 15 minutes for number six, a powerful strike from Ben White. A raft of second-half changes ultimately took the sting out of the Gunners, but the damage was long done.

GOAL rates Arsenal’s players from Bramall Lane…