So what's happened in the last two weeks? Well quite a lot as it goes. The anti-fascist cause received a shot in the arm when first Arsenal and then West Brom tonked Sunderland, helping to expedite the sacking of that duce loving asshole Di Canio. Manchester United were also on the end of a spanking at Eastlands (O Robin, where art thou?). Oh, and the Gunners have won another three on the bounce.
First came the aforementioned tie in the North East, the main point interest of which was of course the debut of the 40 million pound man, the Teutonic titan himself and our new resident übermensch Mesut Özil (whose arrival at Arsenal has forced journalists everywhere to familarise themselves with umlauts and their keyboard shortcuts; alt 153 if you're wondering). Arsenal's most expensive player did not disappoint, creating a goal within a quarter of an hour after first bringing down a ball over the top before squaring for the marauding Giroud to stroke it home. Pleasingly he also seemed to develop an understanding with the rest of his teammates fairly quickly, and was involved in the build up for the third goal. Özil will undergo a period of adjustment due to more physical nature of football in this country, but his sheer raw talent and ability should ensure that it doesn't last too long.
The trip to the North East was followed by a dreary 2-1 win in Marseille. The game wasn't a must win, but with the two home fixtures against Napoli and Dortmund up next, the opening match was one Arsenal couldn't really afford to lose. Thankfully a tie which nearly got away from them at several points remained goalless, until a tidy volley from Walcott put his team up 1-0. A deflected shot from the edge of the area gave this season's surprise package Aaron Ramsey his 6th goal of the campaign, and despite a late penalty concession, Arsenal held on to go top of the group after matchday 1 (in the group's other fixture, Napoli ran out 2-1 winners, and if you haven't seen Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp's frankly bonkers reaction to seeing his goalkeeper sent off, check it out immediately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MJ7gxuDGxI).
Finally we were visited by those awkward and ungainly chaps from Stoke, a team which looks and plays like they were put together by a villainous comic book scientist trying to create the evil antithetical version of Wenger's Arsenal side. The team is under new leadership, but if your manager coaches like Tony Pulis and quacks like Tony Pulis, then it's still Tony Pulis managing your club in all but name. That new gaffer is of course Mark Hughes, better known as Pulis lite, whose teams are best known for kicking whatever is in front of them as hard as they can, be it a football or opposition player.
Previous trips to the capital have not ended well for Stoke City, and it often seemed as though Pulis' sole concern was that his team not lose by a cricket score; it was a rare sight when two or more of his players ventured to leave their own half. Hughes at least allowed his team to attack on occasion, and they were rewarded in kind when their first chance of the game led to a goal which cancelled out Ramsey's opener (the Welshman, incidentally, now has 7 in 8 to start the season). A bit of Pulis style defensive organisation might have ensured that parity was maintained for longer than a few minutes, however; Mertersacker was the man to restore Arsenal's lead after his looping header somehow dropped into the far corner of the goal.
2-1 was the score at the interval, and though Stoke had a few bright spells in the second half, the game was put to bed when Sagna jumped highest at another set piece twenty minutes from the end and his header flew over Begovic and into the net. So what did we learn from Sunday's game? Well firstly that Stoke, for all their 6 foot plus behemoths, look peculiarly vulnerable at set pieces. You allowed Arsenal to put two headers past you; that's how many we score in a season. It was like seeing Thelonious Monk out-blow Miles Davis on trumpet. Football fans don't like change and heading the ball is your raison d'etre. Get. It. Together.
Secondly, apparently all we needed to start banging them in from set pieces was assist machine Mesut Özil to be the man delivering the crosses. The German now has 3 assists by my reckoning in two league games, which is not a bad start. In terms of the other areas of his game, our new number 11 seems to be settling in ok. For all the exuberance after his move to North London, the one caveat suggested by a few pundits was that he has a tendency to drift in and out of games, something that his critics might argue happened in Marseilles. If that does happen it's far from the end of the world though, given his already apparent ability to change games completely. Moreover once Cazorla returns, if either one loses focus the other should be able to pick up the slack. Plus I think Özil should be allowed a grace period of a few months before we start pointing out flaws in his game. For the first time since Arshavin's half season after he arrived in the January window, we've got a player who makes you sit up and take notice every time he's on the ball, simply because he has the ability to make something out of nothing; it's difficult to overstate the importance and impact of players like that on a club like Arsenal.
So what's next? First an away trip to West Brom in the league cup this midweek, about which it's proving fairly hard to muster any interest. Following that will be a trip to Swansea this weekend. After winning the league cup last season the Swans seemed more concerned with their summer holiday than they were with seeing out the league; after their surprising 3-0 demolition of Valencia at the Mestalla earlier this month, they seem to have got back to the business of passing teams to death again however, and Liverpool were probably lucky to escape the Liberty stadium with a point. Expect a stern test.
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