Ozil hits a beauty, but... NOW IT’S UGLY GETTING

THE beauty of a wonderful goal from Mesut Ozil gave way to the reality of mediocrity and more dropped points at the Emirates yesterday as Arsenal and Newcastle fought each other for the prize of who had the most to lose.

An exhibition of elegance turned into an exercise in desperation. What once was pretty finished up ugly.

Arsenal clung on and moved back into the Champions League places, two points ahead of north London rivals Tottenham, but only against a backdrop of loud dismay from their supporters who have realised with a sense of familiar dread that they are contemplating another season gripped by a grim battle to try to scramble into the top four.

Newcastle, who have now lost eight of their last nine games, slipped into the bottom three when West Ham won their delayed match at Stoke. It has been quite a fall since the optimism of early season. The sale of the club and new arrivals in January cannot come too soon. ‘We are what we are and we have what we have,’ Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez said, deadpan, after the match.

For most of the match this was, as another journalist ventured, ‘a goal in need of a game’. It is looking increasingly likely that by the end of this season Ozil will be a star in need of a club. He is one of the best players to watch in the Premier League but his contract is running down and suitors are beginning to close in.

‘I’m confident he will stay, yes, whatever that means,’ Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said, without sounding very confident.

He will be a huge loss to Arsenal if he leaves. Goals like the one he scored yesterday are the kind of moments that stave off outright rebellion. Arsenal may not have a chance of winning the league but if they can watch Ozil every week, it is a decent consolation.

Some curmudgeons still damn Ozil because he does not throw himself into tackles but he remains a delight to watch, a feast of exquisite technique and clever vision, a player whose mind works at a faster speed than many of his rivals. And many of his teammates.

In the first half Newcastle offered little going forward and if there was a sense of inevitability about Arsenal taking the lead midway through it, there was nothing remotely predictable about the manner in which they did it.

When a shot from Alexis Sanchez ballooned into the air off the head of DeAndre Yedlin, Florian Lejeune could not clear it properly and nodded it as far as one of the best left feet in world football. Ozil watched the ball drop, got his head over the ball and fashioned a volley from the edge of the box that was beautiful in its technique and perfect in its execution and flew past recalled Irish keeper Rob Elliot into the roof of the net.

Ozil is always wonderful to watch, even when in a cameo mood, but against Newcastle he performed like the leading man.

Maybe he can feel the eyes of his suitors watching him. He nearly scored again before half-time when he squeezed a shot past Elliot but it was hacked off the line by a Newcastle defender.

Alexandre Lacazette was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty 10 minutes before the interval when he was wrestled to the ground by Lejeune but in the second half Newcastle finally began to show some ambition. Roared on by their supporters behind the goal, they gave Arsenal their first nervous moments.

Their fans, who had travelled down in numbers and who had roared their players on at the faintest hint of encouragement, sensed the first signs of hope when substitute Matt Ritchie found himself in space on the edge of the box but lifted his shot over the bar.

A couple of minutes later Newcastle had their best chance of the game when Jacob Murphy cut in from the left and jinked past Hector Bellerin and Laurent Koscielny before curling a low shot towards the bottom left corner.

Petr Cech dived to push it away and there was not a Newcastle forward near enough to apply the

finishing touch. The Arsenal fans began to grow restless. Discontent is never far below the surface at the Emirates these days, although there are signs it has ebbed into hopelessness. As Wenger’s team laboured, the murmurs of frustration turned into groans.

Lacazette should have done better when he was put clean through on the goalkeeper but he tried to chip Elliot rather than lash the ball past him and his effort sailed over the bar. When he was substituted 15 minutes from the end, though, a light sprinkling of boos met his withdrawal.

Arsenal might have doubled their lead soon afterwards when Sanchez curled a cross to the far post and it was only cleared to Jack Wilshere, who was lurking 10 yards out.

Wilshere met it cleanly on the half volley but Elliot blocked it with his legs and the sense of foreboding among the Arsenal fans grew.

Newcastle went close 10 minutes from the end when Joselu’s shot took a deflection and went just wide. Newcastle were suddenly in the ascendancy and Ayoze Perez rose above the Arsenal defence to head across Cech. There was a nervous pause as Arsenal fans waited for the net to bulge but the header went wide, too.

The final whistle finally brought a measure of relief for the home support. But not much. There was some muted applause and a couple of cries of ‘Wenger Out’. A win is a win but there is a sense of drift and apathy in this corner of north London that feels as if it has set in for the winter.