Alexandre Lacazette made a stunning start to his Arsenal career by scoring on his debut to wrap up a 2-0 victory over Sydney FC.
The striker netted within 15 minutes of coming off the substitutes’ bench late on at a sold-out ANZ Stadium to mark his arrival for a club-record fee in style.
It had looked until that point that a fourth-minute strike from Per Mertesacker, magnificent during the FA Cup final in his last Gunners appearance, would be the only goal of the game.
Danny Welbeck had a controversial second-half penalty saved by Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, whose impressive performance ensured the match remained in the balance until Lacazette’s late intervention.
The match was Arsenal’s first pre-season encounter, with a friendly against Western Sydney Wanderers to follow on Saturday.
The club’s record signing from Lyon made his hotly-anticipated first appearance midway through the second half in front of more than 80,000 and took just 15 minutes to strike, making a late dart into the box before sweeping home Alex Iwobi’s cut-back (83).
Per Mertesacker’s fourth-minute opener had been scant reward for an unsurprisingly dominant display as Danny Welbeck missed a penalty and Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne pulled off a string of smart stops.
But Arsene Wenger will be buoyed by the quick impact of his new No 9, as well as the performances of youngsters Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock and Cohen Bramall, who all made their senior debuts before the Frenchman shuffled his pack.
Lacazette had started on the bench with the likes of Olivier Giroud and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but another summer signing, Sead Kolasinac, was named on the left of a three-man defence and showed a penchant for a forward charge as well as an eye for an interception.
Theo Walcott swung at goal with just a minute on the clock but the breakthrough came soon after from an unlikelier source, Mertesacker reacting instinctively from a corner as he hooked over his shoulder and into the bottom corner.
Nelson, with quick feet and close control, shone in the opening half but Welbeck failed to connect with some good deliveries from the byline and took a ball off his toe after the youngster had crafted space in the box under pressure.
Alli is currently contracted to Tottenham until the summer of 2021, and will be a key player for Mauricio Pochettino’s team next term as Spurs eye a first league title for half a century.
Moments later, the visitors had a chance from the penalty spot but replays showed the ball had hit Sebastian Ryall on the back, not the hand, and Sydney’s appeals were vindicated when Welbeck (56) saw his low effort parried to safety.
Arsenal’s tempo dropped until Wenger rang the changes and after a series of smart touches outside the box – from a weighted pass to a clever stepover – Lacazette applied a key one in it, barely breaking stride as he slotted simply past Redmayne to seal the warm-up win.
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