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Arsenal 2 Napoli 0: Mesut Ozil shines as Gunners hit top gear in Champions League win

Greg Leedham reports from Ashburton Grove

If any uninformed souls still harboured doubts about the ability of Mesut Ozil, they were surely banished here. The German, a £42.5 million signing from Real Madrid, gave the performance of the night as Arsenal made a statement with a dominant win over Napoli in north London.

The playmaker oozed class as he tormented the Italian defence, scoring the opening goal — his first for the club — and making another for Olivier Giroud to leave the Gunners sitting pretty atop their Champions League group on six points after the first two matches.

Napoli's Colombian full-back Camilo Zuniga was given a particularly torrid time by Ozil and will probably wake up at night in pools of sweat at the very thought of having to face the Germany international again.

Arsenal, like Ozil, are difficult to knock out of their stride at the minute. Including the League Cup penalty shootout win over West Brom, tonight's result marked 10 consecutive victories in all competitions for Arsene Wenger's men. Who would have predicted such a thing following the 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa that marked the start of Arsenal's season?

Indeed, Wenger knows how quickly things can change and for that reason will no doubt urge caution even after this performance, which began with the home side at their crisp, incisive best.

It took Arsenal just eight minutes to take the lead — and in some style. Giroud, located on the right side of the pitch, sent the in-form Aaron Ramsey clear down the wing with a flick of his boot. The Welshman bided his time before clipping a cross to Ozil on the edge of the area. The ball looked a difficult one to control, but the German struck his shot first time and it zipped past Pepe Reina and into the corner of the net. It was a sumptuous finish, one few players would have been capable of; others would have at least tried to take a touch first.

Wenger performed his trademark fist-pumping celebration and he was at it again seven minutes later when Ozil turned provider for Giroud to double Arsenal's lead. The tenacious Mathieu Flamini intercepted a Napoli clearance and fed Ozil down the right flank. He drove into the area and, with a flick of his left boot, dissected a pass through a sea of defenders to find Giroud who could not miss from close range.

It was fabulous stuff and Napoli, who had only mustered a speculative effort from Lorenzo Insigne in reply, were in danger of being overrun.

Napoli boss Rafael Benitez bristled uncomfortably in his chair. He nearly had something to cheer though when defender Miguel Britos made a very late run into the Arsenal to meet a corner. None of the Arsenal players saw him coming but he could only head over.

Moments later Britos was guilty of nearly letting Arsenal in for a third when he hashed a clearance straight to the in-form Ramsey. The Welshman, with eight goals and three assists to his name already this season, drove alone at the Napoli defence, but eventually lost control and the chance was gone.

The Italians were relieved to hear the half-time whistle. They beat last year's runners-up Borussia Dortmund on matchday one, but had been brutally torn apart by an Arsenal side in fine form.

Perhaps only one Arsenal player had not been at the races — Tomas Rosicky. The Czech was playing his first match for a month and looked more than a little rusty. On at least three occasions in the opening half he squandered the ball cheaply. At the beginning of the second period, he was presented with a golden opportunity to extend Arsenal's lead, but failed to connect with Giroud's pass when only three yards out.

Indeed, it was no surprise when Rosicky was the first to be replaced by Wenger, making way for Jack Wilshere. Napoli, minus the injured Gonzalo Higuain, made a better fist of it in the second half. However their decision-making in the final third was consistently dreadful. Promising attacking situations were wasted on more than one occasion when the player with the ball shot recklessly over instead of supplying a team-mate.

In the end, the visitors had keeper Reina to thank for keeping the score down, the Spaniard saving well from Laurent Koscielny from barely five yards.

So Arsenal march on and will take great confidence that they gave such an assured performance without the likes of Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott, Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain and Wilshere, for the first half at least.

Conventional wisdom states that 10 is the magic number in terms of points needed to escape a Champions League first-round group. On this evidence, Arsenal, who face West Brom in the Premier League on Sunday, could rack up many more points than that.

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