Last night, the quality of Arsenal’s football was, for want of a better word, orgasmic.

If you’re reading this and you missed the match because you weren’t quick enough to get hold of seats costing a tenner and then decided that 20 notes was too much for you, with the game not being on telly, you must be gutted. I have watched, and enjoyed, a lot of football at Arsenal, indeed the last home match against Newcastle was a rather enjoyable game, but it’s difficult to think of a game where I’ve seen such a commanding performance from any team in red and white. Of course, it could be that Sheffield United were crap, but as the old maxim goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you. And beat them Arsene’s Wenger's Red and White Army most certainly did.

Arriving in the ground about five minutes before kick off, it was disappointing to see that the ground was pretty much half full as Elvis belted out The Wonder of You. Was nice to be close enough to the benches to catch Arsene’s wave as he walked out to the touchline though. We didn’t see much more of him apart from the big screen replays of his delight at what followed. The same could not be said for his opposite number.

It seemed as if the boys took a while to get used to their new surroundings, but gradually they found a rhythm and began to work the goalkeeper, Paddy Kenny. Wilshere running infield, laid the ball off to Bendtner, via a dummy from Vela, who played in Johan Djourou, his shot on the turn turned was saved, whilst Jack Wilshere found himself with an age of time and acres of space to score his first senior goal. The youngster blazed high and wide. He wouldn’t have to worry about that for too long though. The first goal, when it came, was a beauty. Carlos Vela turning away from old man marking him and feeding Nicklas Bendtner, who took one, two touches and then arrowed a shot into the bottom corner. It was Bergkamp-esque and moments like this can only have you believing in him. He looked very lively, coming deep for the ball and dropping out to the right in front of us. Bendtner it was, as the half time procession to toilets and refreshment stalls began, who got the second. But really the goal was all about Aaron Ramsey whose cheeky backheel played him in on the left hand side of the box for a finish that Kenny got to but couldn’t stop.

It was then that a new star may have been born underneath the floodlights. Bendtner played in Carlos Vela down the right, his first touch was excellent and for me, watching him from behind, there was no doubt as to what he was going to do. Vela cut in and curled a powerful shot into the far corner. An excellent first goal for the Mexican, to cap an excellent first half for the lads, better would follow.

Any pretence this game had of being a contest was ended on 50 minutes when Keiran Gibbs, right in front of us, lifted a pass down the touchline for Vela to chase. He flicked a header over the defender marking him, took a touch inside and produced an outrageous chip over Paddy Kenny. Jack Wilshere was next to get in on the act, he capped a display of intelligent link up play with Gavin Hoyte (these two seemed to have a great understanding), crisp passing and purposeful running with a long rage strike into the bottom corner from Fran Merida’s short corner that Paddy Kenny was probably surprised by.

Kevin Blackwell was rarely in his seat last night, he seemed to spend the whole night gesticulating at his players. I don’t know what he was trying to communicate and judging from the result, his players clearly didn’t either. Anyway I got a few laughs when I called out to him to sit down as I couldn’t see anything. Another Blackwell sortie to the edge of his technical area, with him screaming at one of his old soldiers was greeted thus (me:) “Tell him Kevin, tell him!” (someone else:) “Tell him that he’s sh*t!”

One guy had James Beattie seething as he sat out the last 20 minutes. Oh what fun to be had behind the opposition bench. The Sheffield United fans, for their part, did manage to get a song or two going in the second half. I guess it was their best chance of being entertained, certainly they wouldn’t have been entertained by anything their team did. One of the best things about last night was that with a clutch of British talent at our heart, the Blades’ support couldn’t even sing moronically, as they did two years ago, “Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland!”

“One Arsene Wenger” made three changes which slowed the game down somewhat, Alex Song limped off to be replaced by Henri Lansbury, Francis Coquelin replaced Fran Merida and Jay Simpson came on for Nick Bendtner, who should have had his hat trick after a great pass from Merida split the Blades apart. He put his shot wide and thereafter the stage was left open for Carlos Vela to grab his first hat trick for the club. He did this in the 87th minute, with people heading for the tube, sent clear by a lovely pass from Ramsey, the rest was a formality. He just never looks like missing.

Job done, we stayed to clap the players off, it was lovely to see Jack and Carlos in particular respond to the shouts of approbation as they headed towards the tunnel. They had had excellent matches, with the foundations for a real flexing of young Arsenal muscle had been laid down by the twin bedrocks of Djourou and Song. It seemed like United never had a chance. Ramsey showed what a talent he is, his eye for a pass may well be unmatched by any central midfielder at the club, apart from the obvious one. And possibly, Denilson. Mark Randall put in a very tidy performance, always available, the energy and drive of Gavin Hoyte was also impressive, it would be great to see him go one better than his brother and really establish himself at the Arsenal. He has time on his side. And so do most of these youngsters, who were so confident they even had Fabianski joining in their triangles last night! The big challenge for Arsene will be to integrate these lads into what is a very strong first team squad. On the evidence of last night, he should have no fears about putting any of them in the first team. I believe they would do him, and us proud.

This piece will go on Paul’s oleole.com blog - Tales From Gillespie Road, where you can read his previous offerings.