Arsenal Vs Napoli: 5 things we learned – Well, that was wonderful

3. Mesut Ozil knits all together

Some of Arsenal’s combination play on Thursday was truly lovely to behold. Not content with merely possessing the ball, they looked to play forwards, regularly fizzing low passes into the feet of attacking players in good positions. The movement of the play in the midfield was superb. And, predictably, at the heart of it all was Mesut Ozil.

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Offered a free-roaming role in behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who would then split wide to press, leaving Ozil with little defensive duty also, the German was offered the license to drift in between the Napoli lines, making himself exceptionally difficult to keep constant tabs on.

Ozil smoothed out Arsenal’s play by receiving passes from the defence and deep-lying midfield in half-spaces and then turning to drive at an exposed Napoli back four. He was at the heart of the brilliantly worked first goal, playing two first-time passes, both forwards, both progressing the attack with speed and purpose. It sounds small, almost futile, but it makes all the difference, especially when it is done consistently, throughout the match.

The best way to describe Ozil’s impact on the team was that he knitted the play altogether. There weren’t the sensational, defence-splitting passes. Only a couple of times did he shimmy past a defender, drawing an ‘ooh’ from the crowd. But he was consistent, relentlessly available, and smooth, precisely what Arsenal required him to be.