Thomas Partey off to a flier on first start as Arsenal turn the tide in Europa League opener

For large parts of this match last night, Mesut Ozil’s tweets provided more entertainment than the action on the pitch.

As Arsenal toiled away in Vienna, Ozil was back home tweeting to his 25 million followers, but his prediction of a 4-1 win for the Gunners looked in doubt when Taxiarchis Fountas pounced on Bernd Leno’s sloppy pass to give Rapid Vienna the lead.

“Chin up Bro @Bernd_Leno! We still have enough time to turn this around guys! Come on Gunners!!” tweeted Ozil. And he proved to be right, as first David Luiz and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang secured a 2-1 victory.

As he so often does, Aubameyang will have got the headlines for his winner, but in reality, the real star last night was Thomas Partey. Big things are expected of the Ghanaian after he arrived on transfer deadline day for £45million and the early signs look very promising.

Handed a first start last night, Partey looked at home in the Arsenal midfield, breaking up attacks and demonstrating just why he inherited the nickname ‘The Octopus’ while playing in Spain.

Partey in numbers

90.2% pass completion from 92 passes
5 successful tackles made
8 times possession regained
76.9% of his duels were won

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “He held the midfield by himself in the second half when we were a little more open and started to take more chances and attacking certain spaces with some players.

“He looked really solid and really comfortable. He was fantastic and there is much more to come from him.”

While Partey showcased his ability to break up play and be the destructive midfielder Arsenal have craved for years, it was the quality of his passing that took some by surprise.

Everyone knows about Partey’s strength and power, but there is a finesse and guile to his play in possession that indicates he is much more of a complete midfielder than people give him credit for.

There needs to be some caution, however. This was, after all, just Partey’s first start and Arteta is wary of the pressure on him now. “Yes, of course,” said the Gunners manager. “But he needs his team-mates around him. It’s not about him. We know that with the price we paid for him and the profile of the player, he’ll have a lot of people looking at him every game.

“But this is about the structure we have as a team and the flow, the unity and the cohesion that we need in our team and he is one piece of that.”

In reality, this Sunday’s match against Leicester will be a better barometer to see exactly what impact Partey can have on this Arsenal midfield. He was impressive in Vienna last night, but Arsenal did not sign him to shine in Europa League group games. He was bought to be the difference in games like the one on Sunday.

Standing in Partey’s way then will be James Maddison and Youri Tielemans — two players who will really test his ability.

So far, though, it has been the ideal start for the 27-year-old, who was rightly named man of the match last night — both officially and by Ozil’s Twitter followers, after the German ran a poll.

Ozil will perhaps just be disappointed, though, that he is unlikely to get the chance to play alongside a player who looks like he is the missing piece to Arsenal’s midfield jigsaw.

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Smith column: Partey reminds me of Vieira the way he bosses midfield