Twice Özil tried his favourite 30-yard loft-pass for Walcott to run on to and was inches off both times. Stunned, United got to grips with the midfield gradually, producing a kind of lumbering, sideways domination that rarely promised to create pace anywhere other than in behind the pachydermic Carrick-Schweinsteiger midfield pair. Minutes late Özil scored the second, combining with Theo Walcott to set Arsenal’s centre-forward in space before taking Walcott’s pass and slotting the ball low past David de Gea for his first Premier League goal since April. The opening goal came via an overload in the same channel that resulted in Arsenal’s No10 sprinting to the byline and cutting the ball back for Sánchez to finish brilliantly via his right instep. After which Özil drifted left, dropping into Ashley Young’s space, creating pockets of alarm wherever he went. His first significant touch was a dreamy little flick with the outside of his foot. It was, though – and Özil really is a lovely, beguiling infuriating sprite of a No10 – well worth waiting for. But the fact is in two years at the club this was Özil’s first goal and second assist in 17 matches against Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the five best teams Arsenal have played in his time. There is often talk among committed Özilites about his influence as an immeasurable, gossamer force, visible only to the initiated. The challenge is just to do this more often.
FIRST TOUCH SOCCER 2015 ACTUALIZADO FULL
When he flexes his shoulders and pulls himself up to the full height of his talent – not to mention operating in his favoured No10 position – Arsenal have a creative player whose ability to pass and use space is a class above anything else in the Premier League, David Silva excepted. Never mind the familiar disappointments against Olympiakos in midweek, if Arsenal can reproduce the aggression and the intense will to win they showed here they have a fair shot this season at beating any team on any ground at any time. The whole thing had a kind of fantasy Wenger-world feel to it, a sort of sweatily enticing dream. Arsenal had spent their last five Premier League matches against United mustering up three goals in the last two years but here they got three in the first 20 minutes. On a mild, sunlit north London afternoon there was an air of double take about the entire opening half hour. He was spiky, dogged, assertive, an alpha-male lovely little gliding ghost of a No10. Here Özil wasn’t just the game’s outstanding creative influence.
FIRST TOUCH SOCCER 2015 ACTUALIZADO PLUS
Well, he had one here, with the arrival finally in a key Premier League match of Özil at his most incisive, plus a glimpse perhaps of something new, too. Much has been made of the fact Arsène Wenger did not sign any outfield player during the summer transfer window. The German also continued to pass, move and press at a relentlessly high level during his 75 minutes on the pitch. In the course of a stunning, fast-start 3-0 victory at the Emirates Arsenal’s record signing not only scored one and made one, elegantly shredding Manchester United’s defence in the opening 20 minutes while laying on the afternoon’s decisive combination punch. In the last two years Mesut Özil’s time in the Premier League has been not so much a bumpy road as an indeterminate drift, moments of high-grade influence mixed with long spells of meandering at the fringes.