Evolution of the squad illustrated with another Halloween-weekend hammering of poor opposition…

This 5-0 win over Sheffield United was mirrored on the exact same Premier League weekend last year when we thrashed Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline and even had the same half-time 1-0 lead.

It’s a really interesting snapshot of how the squad has evolved. Even though 10 of last season’s starting XI for the Forest match are still at the club (Granit Xhaka the exception) only four players started both games – Ben White, William Saliba, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

Digging deeper into the stats from the game show almost identical ‘expected goals’ figures. Giving up a paltry 0.21 last year and an even more stingy 0.03 (close to the PL record) yesterday. At the other end of the pitch we created chances to be worth at least a three-goal margin.

Nottingham Forest escaped relegation last season, but the evidence of Saturday afternoon suggests that the Blades won’t be as fortunate. This isn’t a case of ‘you can only beat what’s in front of you’, I think it’s more of a suggestion that the whole squad is so well drilled they now fit in to an organised style of play that can produce the same results regardless.

VAR is a painful hinderance than the help we were promised…

At least two of Saturday’s goals could not be enjoyed ‘in the moment’ as the VAR officials picked over the minutiae of through balls, handballs and potential fouls.

The whole system does not seem to have any redeeming qualities and is making plenty of early advocates look silly.

Their clamour for this has not suddenly thrust us in to some kind of officiating utopia where every single decision is completely correct. It’s obvious now to say that was never going to happen, but I don’t think even the biggest critics of this helping-hand for the on-pitch officials knew just how much it would detract from the match-going experience.

There’s also only a net-deficit to the whole division. It didn’t work when they pored over everything in detail, it didn’t work when they tried to rush things, it won’t work with the current hybrid model of some decisions being rushed and others being over-scrutinised.

What we’ve been left with is an inconsistent mess, not just in Arsenal matches, and we now can’t celebrate goals – even the most obvious ones – without some kind of fear they will be disallowed.

Give us the old days of the odd bad decision, the occasional terrible decision but it all levelling up in the wash, while the game still flowed and we could celebrate with impunity.

Squad shuffling could continue into the midweek…

One of the small blots on the copybook from last season was the tame League Cup exit at home to Brighton. We were well off the pace and it was unfortunate for a number of Gooners that don’t often get to the Emirates that they witnessed a one-sided defeat.

This year we’ve already sneaked past Brentford and have another London derby in midweek as we travel to the London Stadium. West Ham also have European football to think about as David Moyes manages his squads exertions, they’re also in terrible form.

Our second-string should be capable of beating a home team that could include ex-Gunners Konstantinos Mavropanos and Hammers cup-keeper Lukasz Fabianski. Mikel Arteta has a big decision to make based on the severity of Gabriel Jesus’s injury.

Knowing that if Eddie Nketiah is risked he might need to be relied upon in the bigger game of the week at Newcastle.

Let’s trust the boss to get it right like he did the week just gone.