Arsene Wenger promised quality, not quantity, and in both respects he has delivered.
Mesut Ozil should make a more productive Arsenal player of not only Lukas Podolski, his colleague in Germany’s attack, but Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, each of whom has already shown signs of development in the early stages of this season.
Ozil has the ability to become Arsenal’s most creative catalyst since Dennis Bergkamp, although earning of comparison with Cesc Fabregas would be enough to justify his £42.5million fee.
Wenger has needed such a player since Fabregas went to Barcelona; even the goals of Robin van Persie could not camouflage the lack of a true playmaker. Neither the injury-hampered Jack Wilshere nor Santi Cazorla has quite filled the gap. Ozil should.
It is true that Arsenal have other requirements. They could have done with a holding midfielder of the type now common at Tottenham, and a central defender and a full-back, as well as the striker Wenger sought in Karim Benzema.
But to have spread their budget across the team would have been to continue the approach that brought Gervinho to the Emirates.
At the level to which Arsenal aspire, players of a higher class are required and Ozil has overnight lent credibility to the Champions League campaign. After the win over Spurs, it is proving quite a week and Wenger must be cursing its interruption by the international break.
Has he overloaded himself with No10s? It is a reasonable question, given the presence of Wilshere and Cazorla, not to mention the revivals of Tomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey. But the answer is Barcelona.
A footballing club can always find work for good footballers. At least that is Wenger’s philosophy and, if he gets the best out of Ozil as he did with Fabregas, it should start to pay off again.
