One player does not make a team, but, when the player is as talented as Mesut Özil, he can transform it. Rarely in English football in recent years has a single acquisition had such an uplifting effect as his £42.5 million move to Arsenal, bringing boldness where once there was hesitation, bringing optimism where once there was despair.

On the pitch and in the stands, everything feels different at the Emirates Stadium now that Özil is here. You could focus on the exquisite nature of his eighth-minute goal, a delicious side-foot shot past Reina, or the deft outside-of-the-foot cross that set up Olivier Giroud to make it 2-0 within a quarter of an hour, but the Özil effect can be discerned everywhere: in the anticipation