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Arsenal 4 Norwich 1: Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil keep Gunners in vogue

by Peter Jordan at Ashburton Grove

An Arsenal home game is quickly re-establishing itself on London’s tourist trail. Based on this display by the table-topping Gunners, this trend will continue.

Walking to Arsenal on a match day, it’s impossible not to notice the volume of tourists in attendance, with the sound of excited foreign voices chattering in the autumn breeze.

In recent years, the numbers of international visitors had, at least empirically, dwindled in correlation with Arsenal’s lack of success. Now that the Gunners are purring again, visitors from abroad are flocking back and it’s easy to see why.

Although this was far from Arsenal’s most cohesive performance of the season, it was punctuated by four goals of the highest quality that put paid to a brave effort by Norwich.

The hosts opened the scoring with a goal of beauty, initiated and finished by Jack Wilshere.

Commencing the move from inside his own penalty area, Wilshere reappeared on the edge of the City box, where he exchanged two sets of passes with Olivier Giroud before instinctively guiding the ball past John Ruddy.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger punched the air in delight and later described the goal as one of the best he had seen in his time at the club.

Indeed, it was a truly team goal. Much of the Gunners’ current success is underpinned by a better balance to the side than in recent years, with the arrival of Mathieu Flamini, the return to fitness of Mikel Arteta and the phenomenal development of Aaron Ramsey providing a midfield base from which creativity can flourish.

Mesut Ozil ended another flowing move to double the Gunners’ lead with a header on 58 minutes, before the Canaries pulled a goal back through Jonny Howson.

Thoughts of a comeback were extinguished in the 83rd minute, when substitute Ramsey left the Canaries’ defence bamboozled before passing the ball into the net.

The Welshman then turned creator for Ozil’s second, leaving a bewildered Norwich side to depart Ashburton Grove with only their opponents’ shirts as souvenirs.

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