Mesut Özil has what it takes to be Arsenal captain, says Unai Emery

Unai Emery has backed Mesut Özil as a potential regular Arsenal captain after the midfielder led the side to a 5-1 victory over the new manager’s former club Paris Saint-Germain in Singapore.

Arsenal signed off the Asian leg of their International Champions Cup campaign in style, with Özil’s early goal and two second-half strikes from Alexandre Lacazette putting them in charge after Christopher Nkunku had levelled briefly from the penalty spot. There was a late fourth from Rob Holding before the 19-year-old striker Eddie Nketiah drilled in number five.

Özil, who endured a dreadful summer with Germany at the World Cup that prompted him to retire from international football, was named captain for the fixture and wasted little time making an impact.

“We are working together and giving the responsibility to the player,” said Emery. “I think he can take that responsibility of being captain – but let’s not forget Laurent Koscielny because he is captain as well. Petr Cech and Aaron Ramsey also played as captains in friendlies.”

Özil began the match in his favoured No 10 role. “We want to give him the position where he feels best on the pitch,” said Emery. “We started today with Mohamed Elneny and Mattéo Guendouzi [as holding midfielders] and they tried to find players such as Mesut and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan through the lines.”

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The game began at pace, with PSG’s Azzeddine Toufiqui already having gone close with two left-foot shots when Özil’s cross set up Shkodran Mustafi for a header which flew wide. But within a minute an unattended Özil made sure himself, tucking in from close range after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had raced clear and crossed from the right.

Alex Iwobi’s right-foot shot was saved by Gianluigi Buffon and, although Toufiqui threatened Bernd Leno’s goal again with a long-range strike before the half-hour, Arsenal were dominating. Buffon saved twice more, from Aubameyang and then a testing shot from Mkhitaryan, and Mustafi went close from Özil’s cross but Arsenal could not extend their advantage before the break.

Emiliano Martínez, who replaced Leno at half-time, kept Arsenal ahead with a fine save from Nkunku’s shot early in the second half. Timothy Weah, son of former PSG striker and current Liberia president George Weah, missed from a tight angle, as did Adrien Rabiot with a header. Then, after Sead Kolasinac fouled Weah to concede a penalty, Nkunku made no mistake from the spot to level just before the hour mark.

Emery made four further substitutions – including Emile Smith Rowe, on his 18th birthday, for Özil – and three minutes later the teenage midfielder helped Arsenal get back in front when he found the perfect cross for Lacazette to get in ahead of the defence.

The France striker confirmed Arsenal’s superiority with a close-range header in the 70th minute. Holding then emphasised the advantage with his header in the 87th minute, and four minutes into injury time Nketiah completed the rout.