Auba, Ozil star as Arsenal make it perfect 10
LONDON: Pierre-emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil stole the show as Arsenal swept to their 10th successive win with a dominant 3-1 victory against Leicester on Monday.
Unai Emery’s side trailed to Hector Bellerin’s first-half own goal at the Emirates Stadium.
But Ozil, captaining Arsenal on his return to the side after back spasms, produced a majestic display to lead the Gunners’ impressive fightback.
Ozil, shrugging off his poor start to the season, equalised just before half-time and played a key role in Aubameyang’s secondhalf double.
Gabon striker Aubameyang scored twice in quick succession after coming off the bench, ensuring Arsenal won 10 consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since 2007.
They have scored 30 goals in that blistering streak and climb to fourth place in the Premier League, just two points behind leaders Manchester City.
On the 69th birthday of Emery’s predecessor Arsene Wenger, this was the kind of swashbuckling show that recalled Arsenal’s glory days under the Frenchman.
Ozil summed up Arsenal mood, tweeting after the match: “I think we played some sexy football tonight. Proud captain of this team.”
It was the perfect start to a hec-
tic week that sees Arsenal travel to Portugal for a Europa League tie against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday before returning to domestic action at Crystal Palace on Sunday.
“We are happy because we are progressing. We need to play with organisation but also we are beginning to play with heart,” Emery said. “Today the performance of the team, and also of Mesut, was very good.”
Emery has made a remarkable impact since replacing Wenger in the close-season.
The Spanish manager’s twogame losing streak at the start of his Arsenal reign is now a distant memory as Gunners fans start to dream of a title challenge after their seventh successive league win. “When you improve your demands are very high. We need to control matches more than we are doing now.”
This was Arsenal at their finest as Ozil and Lacazette combined to carve open the Leicester defence in a blur of flicks and tricks. The classic action movie Top Gun is at heart, a feature-length showdown between two showboating pilots, going by the handles ‘Maverick’ and ‘Ice-man’. Played by Tom Cruise, Maverick is the film’s all-conquering leading man who emerges victorious, but it is his charismatic rival, played by Val Kilmer, who has true style and cheek. So much that Formula One’s coolest, most unflappable racer shares his handle. On Sunday, Kimi Raikkonen won the United States Grand Prix, and there couldn’t be a more popular victor. Formula One is a sport driven by fierce rivalries and team histories, and rare is a driver who can transcend colours and costumery. This Finn — who won Sunday’s race exactly 11 years after he won his first World Championship for Ferrari — may be the last one standing. “It’s better than finishing second,” he said when congratulated, concise even after driving flawlessly and beating Lewis Hamilton off the line.
One reason everyone is celebrating is that Raikkonen’s last victory came at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, 113 races ago, setting a new record for the longest gap between wins. Räikkönen has always been popular because of how terrific and how taciturn he can be. He started out a prodi- gious talent, a hard-partying young sensation who delighted in setting the fastest lap. He is a superb judge of braking — both when attacking and defending — and while he seems to get bored when not fighting for the top step, his race-craft is still special.
For me, 2003 was The Most Raikkonen Year. It was his third F1 season, and in the first race, he qualified 15th in the Mclaren spare car. Yet here he was, finishing in third place, holding off the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher at his most bullish. Raikkonen lost the championship by two points, but he took it to the final race. In 2007, he played the scarlet saviour for Ferrari, taking the title by one point from Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
And now he’s leaving again. This year, on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari told Raikkonen he will be replaced by Charles Leclerc. Raikkonen’s reaction? He took pole position at that race, and this weekend gave us a win so glorious it is clear he has much left in the tank. I hereby predict he will — unlikely as it sounds — even win with Sauber, the team he is going to and the team he started with. When on song, the years fall away.
A Raikkonen overtake does not look like a 39-year-old racer in action.
Thank you for the races, Kimi Raikkonen. For the quotes and the ice-cream and the winks and the glamour-shots and for the way you raised your arms after this victory, as a sunglass-clad superhero. Sebastian Vettel might be Ferrari’s number one driver, but the truly cool don’t need to be called top gun.
Raja Sen is a film critic and one of India’s longestrunning Formula One columnists