Martin Odegaard Shines in Community Shield Win

Martin Odegaard did not just lift a trophy in Cardiff. He changed the temperature around Arsenal’s season before a league ball has even been kicked.

The captain produced a man-of-the-match display in a 3-0 Community Shield dismantling of Manchester City, the kind of performance that had become rare during a stop-start, injury-scarred 2025-26. This looked like the Odegaard who once drove Mikel Arteta’s early revolution. Sharp. Demanding. Brutal with the ball.

Last season, Arsenal finally ended their 22-year wait for a Premier League title, but their chief creator was a bystander far too often. Knee and shoulder problems wrecked his rhythm and restricted him to just 16 league starts. One goal. Seven assists. His leanest return since joining permanently from Real Madrid in 2021-22.

On Sunday, there was nothing lean about him.

Odegaard back in command

From the first whistle, Odegaard played as if someone had turned the clock back and the volume up. He took responsibility in every zone, knitting play, setting the tempo, snapping into challenges.

The numbers backed up the eye test. Of all Arsenal players on the pitch, he completed the most passes (55 of 58), completed the most dribbles (3 of 3) and won possession more than anyone else in red and white, doing so nine times. Those are not just creative stats; they are captain’s stats.

Then came the moment that will live longest. With City stretched, Odegaard glided into the box, shaped to shoot, then let the ball run. Gianluigi Donnarumma bought the dummy completely and ended up on the turf as Odegaard finished off a brilliant third goal. It was swagger, disguised as simplicity.

For a player whose quality has never really been questioned, it was the consistency – and the armband – that drew debate last season. Former players wondered aloud whether he was the right captain for a side with such fierce internal competition. Ninety minutes in Cardiff did not end that conversation forever, but they pushed it firmly in his favour.

A new midfield, an old maestro

Arteta has not stood still since lifting the league trophy. He has gone again in midfield, spending £75m on Bruno Guimaraes and adding yet more variety to an already crowded department.

Mikel Merino, one of the many vying for minutes, has called Arsenal’s midfield options “probably the best in football”. Look at the list and it is hard to argue. Odegaard, Guimaraes, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Merino himself. That is not depth, it is an armory.

Against City, the intrigue centred on how Odegaard and Guimaraes would mesh. The early signs were encouraging. In their first start together, the pair seemed to find each other naturally, one dropping in to receive, the other drifting into pockets between the lines. It was not choreographed. It looked like two elite players reading the same page.

“Sometimes you are just in the flow. You need to find that on the pitch,” Odegaard said afterwards, reflecting on both his own display and the team’s. “All of us were flowing pretty good out there. I will just try to keep that up and keep going.”

That word – flow – was missing for him for most of last season.

From “weird injuries” to World Cup form

Odegaard did at least finish the last campaign on his feet, then carried that form into the World Cup with Norway. He started five of their six matches and registered four assists, finally stringing together the run of games his club season never allowed.

“Last year was really a big struggle with a lot of difficult moments. To miss so many games because of injury was really frustrating,” he admitted on Sunday. “It is the worst thing for a footballer to not be able to be on the pitch and I had quite a lot of weird injuries, and bad luck.

“It was good for me to end the season with a title, here, and then a good World Cup. Then I had my break and I feel good, ready to go again.

“What I have just worked on is to use that as motivation for this year and to come back stronger. And to use all of those experiences in a positive way.”

Arteta has seen the difference up close in pre-season. The manager knows exactly how much he missed his captain’s rhythm and personality in the heart of the side.

“Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum,” Arteta said. “So I’m sure this year if we can maintain him fit, available with the players around him, we’re going to see a very different Martin.

“And I sense from the first day that he joined [pre-season training] that he has something else on the belly that he wants to prove and show, because the team needs it as well.”

Old questions, new edge

The irony is stark. Arsenal conquered the league without ever really seeing their captain at full tilt. Now, with the title to defend and a midfield packed with fresh competition, Odegaard suddenly looks like the one setting the standard again.

Maybe that is exactly what he needed. Pressure from Guimaraes and the rest. Doubts about his captaincy. The memory of those “weird injuries” and lonely rehab sessions. All of it channeled into one ruthless performance against the champions they had to dethrone to get here.

If this is the version of Martin Odegaard that turns up week after week, Arsenal have not just kept their playmaker fit. They might have found the player who makes a title-winning team feel new all over again.