Arsene Wenger has hailed the link-up play between Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck, after both players both scored and provided assists for each other in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa last weekend.

“That’s the positive of the day,” Wenger told Arsenal Player. “When they played close to each other, they combined well, with pace, and that was very interesting for us.”

Ozil, who played through the middle for the first time this season, opened the scoring and then laid on a cross for Welbeck to tap in. Wenger says the quality of his performance is not linked to where he plays.

“[Ozil] had a good performance. The performance is not necessarily linked with the position he played. It was the plan of the day to play him there but that can change game by game. The whole team played better as well and he’s a guy who depends a little bit on the quality of our game.

“I was impressed by [Welbeck's] performance because he had good [ball] retention, he scored, he had an assist, he worked hard and he had a great game.

“We had a good focus from the start on, a good work-rate and good togetherness. Our team play was convincing – we could play patiently and we could play quickly when needed. We scored three goals in [just over] three minutes and that was game over. The second half was more controlled and it was a very convincing performance.”