English Premier League 2013: Arsenal FC Pounds Stoke City FC 3-1, as Ozil Gets Involved; Results, Statistics, Highlights (Photos and Video)
Star-signing Mesut Ozil played a difference maker in Arsenal FC's 3-1 win over Stoke City FC.
Ozil was involved in the 3 goals that the Gunners produced on Sunday.
His 5th minute free-kick, just outside of the box, bounced-off Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic's hands which led to an indirect assist for an Aaron Ramsey goal.
Geoff Cameron leveled the game at the 26-minute mark after Gunners keeper Wojciech Szczesny dove for a previous attempt, hitting the post, thereby putting him out of position for a left bottom-corner strike.
The Germany international, however, was not to be denied as he provided an assist to compatriot Per Mertesacker for a header, from a corner-kick to take the lead before the half-time break.
18 minutes before full-time, Ozil's left-foot once again found a head of one of his teammates. This time it's Bacary Sagna netting the goal that ultimately decided the game in favor of Arsenal.
He was given a standing ovation by the supporters at the Emirates Stadium after being substituted by Mikel Arteta at the 79th minute.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger loved the way the German strutted his wares and believes that the best has yet to come.
"When you look at [Mesut Ozil's] numbers, his assists are not a coincidence, they are a reality of his game. I believe once he is fully integrated we will see even more from him. You could see today he has a good pace as well. At the moment he focuses a lot on his passing but he can create individually as well," Wenger told premierleague.com.
"We had two halves. In the first we were fluent and [we played] well going forward. In the second half we looked jaded physically and lost our technical quality, but we showed another aspect - that we can dig deep and fight when we are a bit under pressure."
"It's been a very good week for us because we won in Marseille [in the UEFA Champions League], we won in Sunderland and we won today, so overall it's been a very positive week. When you play Stoke, you don't expect to score three goals from set-pieces but it shows us how important the delivery is."
Photo and Statistics by: whoscored.com