Mesut Ozil marked his Gunners’ debut with a performance of singular brilliance and superb vision and the German international midfielder will definitely justify the club record £42million transfer fee that took him from Real Madrid on deadline day.
Like the team, he had an outstanding first half and dropped physically in the second.’ Theo Walcott should have gorged himself with a feast of first-half goals principally provided by Ozil’s service. Kieren Westwood denied him with two great point-blank saves in the 15th and 28th minutes and was off target with a close-range header in the 43rd minute from Jack Wilshere’s cross.By this time, the German had announced his arrival by setting up Arsenal’s 11th-minute opener with skills that underlined his polished individuality.
The rest of the half was a pleasurable viewing of Ozil’s midfield master-class which, with his team-mates warming to his example, should have put the points well out of reach by the break. But a resurgent Sunderland came close to making the opposition pay for not making the most of their earlier dominance.
Craig Gardner, who replaced David Vaughan at the interval, was on the field only three minutes before he scored the equaliser from the spot, after Laurent Koscielny had brought down Adam Johnson.
Aaron Ramsey restored Arsenal’s advantage in the 67th minute with a superb right-foot first-time shot from Gibbs’ cross but, three minutes later, Paolo Di Canio was incensed when Jozy Altidore had a goal disallowed because referee Martin Atkinson refused to play the advantage rule after the striker was fouled by Bacary Sagna. Altidore went on to force the ball over the line in spite of a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to prevent the goal by Koscielny.
‘It was a key moment and a big mistake by the referee,’ said the Sunderland manager. ‘He had plenty of time to allow the play to go on and then he could have brought it back for the free-kick. It would have made the score 2-2 and anything could have happened after that.’ The official compounded his error by booking the Arsenal skipper, but Di Canio’s temper was hardly soothed when Ramsey collected a superb pass from Giroud before putting the ball beyond Sunderland’s reach in the 76th minute. ‘The break came at the right time for Sunderland. They came back strong; we dropped physically. They came back to 1-1 but we had the mental resources to find two goals again,’ said Wenger.
Defeat dropped Sunderland to the foot of the table with home games to come against Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham.
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