Avoid expensive array_shift where possible

Avoid expensive array_shift where possible

array_shift manipulates the original array. This is surprisingly
expensive, because it iterates *all* elements in the array and
decrements numeric keys. The code touched in this patch does not need
this restructured new array, but only the individual elements.

Change-Id: Iee28377b2c9930f6de821e041381a1d7564f7633