Martin Odegaard's Resurgence: A New Force for Arsenal

Martin Odegaard is not just back. He looks reborn.

At the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday night, Arsenal’s captain once again decided a game on his own terms, smashing in the only goal of a 1-0 Champions League win over Napoli and stretching a remarkable early-season run.

That strike, rifled in from the edge of the box after a flowing 29-pass move, followed his late winner against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday. Four goals in five games now across all competitions. One goal in the whole of last season. The contrast is stark.

For Mikel Arteta, the explanation is simple: a fit Odegaard, in a different role, surrounded by sharper weapons.

Arteta’s new Odegaard

“First of all he needs to be available and last year he missed so many games through injuries,” Arteta said afterwards, pointing to the foundation of this resurgence.

Last season’s stop-start, injury-hit campaign restricted Odegaard to a single goal for Arsenal. Now his numbers are climbing everywhere. He is not just scoring; he is living in the final third.

Arteta has pushed him into more aggressive areas, helped by fresh combinations around him. The manager talked about “different relationships” and “different heights” in the team, particularly when Arsenal attack. Translation: Odegaard is being encouraged to arrive higher, later, and more often.

The data backs it up. His touches in the opposition box have leapt from 2.5 per 90 minutes last season to 4.3 per 90 so far this term. He is operating closer to goal, more frequently, and with far greater menace.

Arteta credits the cast around him. “We have a lot of players that can take the ball there and progress the ball much better than we did in the past,” he explained. When others can carry and pass through pressure, Odegaard is freed to drift into pockets that unpick defences rather than dropping deep to start moves himself.

That shift forces opponents into impossible choices. Track him and leave space elsewhere. Ignore him and watch him turn.

New partners, same conductor

Christos Tzolis is central to this new picture. The summer signing already has four assists, three of them for Odegaard goals, including the decisive pass in Naples. His ability to find his captain in stride is quickly becoming a pattern.

But it wasn’t just one connection. Arsenal attacked down both flanks and straight through the middle, repeatedly ripping at Napoli’s shape. The visitors racked up 26 shots, their highest total on record in the Champions League since data began in 2003/04. Their expected goals tally of 4.05 screamed that the scoreline should have been far more comfortable.

Napoli hung on. Arsenal kept coming. The pressure finally told through the man in the No 8 shirt.

“That’s what we need,” said Arteta. “The players with the mindset to decide a game and play with personality. To keep taking chances and risks.” Odegaard, he added, now plays with the belief that when he pulls the trigger, “the ball can go in”.

On this evidence, that belief is justified.

Everything runs through him

From the first whistle in Naples, Odegaard looked like the best player on the pitch. He demanded the ball, drifted between the lines, and constantly found seams in Napoli’s defence. The tempo belonged to him.

His goal was the headline, but the performance ran deeper. He finished the night with more touches, more passes and more chances created than any other player. Napoli never really got close enough to disrupt him.

One moment summed up his current swagger: a delicate scooped pass that sent Ben White clear, only for Piero Hincapie to waste the golden chance. It was one of several instances where Odegaard’s vision sliced through a packed defence that had numbers but no answers.

He played with freedom. He played with flair. He played like a captain who knows this is his team.

“Martin is contributing goals,” Arteta said. “That is obviously impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, to be decisive, and certainly he was that today.”

Arsenal are riding that decisiveness. If this is the version of Odegaard they get for the rest of the season – fit, fearless and permanently on the front foot – the question is no longer whether he can carry them in moments.

It’s how far he might carry them.