Arsenal 3 Stoke City 1: It was as this game entered its final 10 minutes that Arsenal fans were able truly to show their appreciation for Mesut Ozil.

They arrived excited to see the German make his home debut and after a display lit up by a key role in all three goals their side scored against a willing but limited Stoke City team he received a standing ovation on being substituted. On this evidence the €50 million man is sure to receive much more acclaim in these parts as an increasingly positive season for the club goes on.

Ozil was not at his sparkling best and it could be argued he was not even the most impressive player on the pitch, given the performances in midfield of Mathieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey, with the Welshman continuing his remarkable start to the season with a seventh goal in all competitions. Yet the record signing caught the eye with a silky, penetrative and ultimately decisive showing.

There was a certain irony, given the tetchy history between Arsenal and Stoke, based on a supposed clash between the beautiful and brutal, that the home team should triumph through a trio of set pieces.

Curious decision
Yet here was proof of the difference Ozil can make to a side and why Real Madrid's decision to let the 24-year-old depart is so baffling.

He has provided 72 assists across the past five seasons, more than any other player in Europe’s top five divisions. And in only three appearances for his new club already has three to his name, four if the free-kick that Asmir Begovic parried into the path of Ramsey is included, allowing him to open the scoring here after five minutes.

That was followed by a corner from which Per Mertesacker put Arsenal back into the lead following Geoff Cameron’s well-taken equaliser and a second-half free-kick that Bacary Sagna converted to put the seal on a victory that moved Arsenal back to top spot.

“When you look at Ozil’s numbers, the assists are not a coincidence; it is a reality of his game,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. “When you play against Stoke you don’t expect to score three goals from set pieces but it shows how important his delivery is and . . . He has shown today that he is a great player.”

More than anything Ozil was the difference for an Arsenal side that deserved to win but hardly took the breath away. Disrupted by an abdominal injury to Theo Walcott, which led to the winger being replaced by Serge Gnabry moments before kick-off, the home side dominated large periods of the game and attacked with fluidity, yet they created few chances in open play, with Olivier Giroud rarely looking likely to add to his five goals this season.

Ramsey, on the other hand, cannot stop scoring. He proved to be the right man in the right place after the normally excellent Begovic made a poor attempt of clearing Ozil’s low free-kick from just outside the area, sidefooting the ball past the goalkeeper from close range.

Defensive Stoke
That should have been the cue for an Arsenal onslaught but Stoke's discipline and pressing reduced the home side to eye-of-the-needle through-passes and shots from long range.

The visitors, stationed deep in their own half, looked unlikely to score but they did just that on 26 minutes when Marko Arnautovic, on his first start for Stoke, hit an upright with a volley following Steven Nzonzi’s cross to the far post before seeing the impressive Cameron convert the rebound to secure his first goal for Mark Hughes’s side.

Arsenal stepped up the pace of their play and retook the lead nine minutes from half-time when, with minimal movement, Mertesacker found himself with enough room to glance Ozil’s right-sided corner into the far corner of the net.

It was from a relatively straightforward header that Sagna also scored on 72 minutes, this time from a left-sided Ozil delivery, leaving Hughes in an unsurprisingly frustrated state with the manner of his team’s defending, particularly after an improved second-half display had suggested they could leave with a point.

“We’re disappointed to have conceded three goals from set pieces. That doesn’t normally happen,” said the Stoke manager. “We showed courage to get back on level terms and in the second half played with a lot of control and possession. But the third goal took the wind out of our sails and came at a poor time.”

Eight minutes after Sagna's goal Ozil received his standing ovation, with those on their feet then roaring Mikel Arteta as he came on to make his first appearance of the season following recovery from a thigh injury. There was joy all round, then and the sense that a season that began amid such rancour is shaping up rather well for Wenger and his men.
Guardian Service