Arsenal's Arsene Wenger: Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan 'look like they have played with us forever'
by James Benge
Arsene Wenger says Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan played like they'd been with his Arsenal side "forever" as the new signings shone in a 5-1 demolition of Everton.
Aubameyang got his first goal, albeit from an offside position, with a delicate chip over Jordan Pickford to make it 3-0 while Mkhitaryan provided three assists as Arsenal ran riot at the Emirates Stadium for the second league game in a row.
Aaron Ramsey was the chief beneficiary of Mkhitaryan's creativity – two of his goals came from assists by the Armenian -with Laurent Koscielny scoring the other goal as Arsenal put in a performance to delight their manager.
"In the first half we were quick, mobile, technically very sharp and we finished very well as well," Wenger said.
"The two players [Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan] integrated well [into] our game and looked like they had played with us forever. They have similar qualities to what our game is about. They are technically good, quick and overall it was a convincing performance."
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Aubameyang had overcome a bout of fever to take his place in the starting lineup for his home debut, but looked as explosive as any forward to have played under Wenger as his pace allowed him to tear past Everton's sedate back five on more than one occasion.
There is, Wenger claims, much more to come from his £56million record signing.
"The quality of his movement was excellent, the quality of his finishing looks excellent.
"He's not completely at his best physically, he still has some work to do."
Though Aubameyang looks to be a shrewd signing it was Mkhitaryan who most wowed the Emirates on his home debut, a player reborn after seeing his career stall at Manchester United under Jose Mourinho.
Having provided six assists in his last 39 Premier League games for United, he moved halfway to that tally in just his second appearance for his new team.
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Wenger was unable to recall a better home debut than Mkhitaryan's, though he did have the defence that he has a database of "1,300 games" from which to recall.
"He's a link player and works very hard as well," Wenger said. "He looked well accepted by the rest of the team and understands very well how we want to play.
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"He didn't play at Manchester United so I was not too surprised [they let him leave]. They got one more player who plays in a similar position with Sanchez.
"I'm not responsible for Manchester's decisions. Arsenal's are enough for me. They had their reasons. They got a world-class player with Sanchez, that certainly obstructed the possibilities to play for [Mkhitaryan].