Odegaard Unleashed: Arsenal's Captain Driving Champions League Ambitions

Arsenal were a kick away from immortality last season. A first Premier League title in 24 years and the Champions League, denied only on penalties by Paris Saint-Germain, would have rewritten the club’s modern history.

They did it with a diminished Martin Odegaard.

Now he looks unstoppable.

Odegaard, unleashed

The 27-year-old arrived into this campaign with the question hanging over him: what happens if Arsenal’s captain actually hits top gear?

We are starting to see the answer.

In Naples, on the opening night of their Champions League campaign, Arsenal swarmed all over Napoli. They had 26 shots – their highest tally in a Champions League game since records began in 2003-04, and the most the Italians have ever faced in that period. Yet the net stayed untouched.

Then Odegaard stepped in.

With 15 minutes left, he found the pocket, shifted the ball on to his left foot and ripped a stunning strike past the keeper to seal a 1-0 win. One clean moment. One ruthless finish. One statement that Arsenal’s captain is back to deciding the biggest nights.

This is a very different Odegaard from the one who limped through last season, battling knee and shoulder problems, restricted to 36 games in all competitions, one goal and seven assists. He played only 24 league matches as Arsenal finally climbed back to the summit of English football. The team soared; he never quite did.

The summer changed something. He hinted at a revival as Norway reached the World Cup quarter-final, losing to England. Now, in the opening weeks of this season, he has gone up a level again.

Goals, swagger, and a point to prove

The warning signs for the rest of Europe were there in Cardiff. In the Community Shield against Manchester City, Odegaard closed out a 3-0 win with an audacious final goal, sitting Gianluigi Donnarumma down before rolling the ball into an empty net. It was a finish dripping with arrogance and control.

He has simply carried on.

He scored in the 3-0 victory over Coventry City. He then delivered the winner in a 2-1 comeback against Chelsea at Emirates Stadium, maintaining Arsenal’s perfect start. That goal summed up his game intelligence: a perfectly timed run into the box, reading Kai Havertz’s clever dummy, and then an emphatic finish past Emiliano Martinez.

Add the winner in Naples to that collection and a pattern emerges. This is a lavishly gifted playmaker who is fully fit, brimming with confidence, and surrounded by a team that finally believes it belongs among Europe’s elite again.

Arsenal will need every ounce of that conviction. Real Madrid are due at Emirates Stadium. A trip to Bayern Munich looms. These are the fixtures that have scarred Arsenal’s Champions League past.

Yet the way they dismantled Napoli’s resistance carried a different feel. The Italians sat in a compact, cynical block that could have been lifted straight from Max Allegri’s playbook, but Arsenal stayed calm. They probed, recycled, went again. No panic, no rush. Just maturity.

The pressure finally told – and Odegaard made sure of it.

The captain’s burden

Mikel Arteta has hinted that his captain is playing like a man with unfinished business. The team had their glory last season; he knows his personal numbers did not match the heights he expects.

Former Premier League defender Nedum Onuoha, speaking on Match of the Day, sees the same fire.

Odegaard, he said, “will want to have a bigger impact on the team this season”. Onuoha believes Arsenal “have got unfinished business in the Champions League” and that the Norwegian “wants to be the first captain of Arsenal to lift that trophy”.

Onuoha did not stop there. He argued that you “would not back against them winning it based on what we’ve seen them do in this competition in the past two seasons”, and underlined that Odegaard “100% takes Arsenal to a different level when he is on form and playing like this”.

When Odegaard is at his best, Onuoha insisted, Arsenal are at theirs. They can still win without him hitting top form, but the “best version of Arsenal” comes when their No 8 is “pulling the strings”, shaping attacks, involving wave after wave of runners and altering the angles of their play.

Right now, Odegaard looks “smooth as silk”. Arsenal, unsurprisingly, look the same.

Arteta’s ideal leader

Arteta could barely hide his satisfaction after that left-foot rocket in Naples.

“This what we need,” he said. “Players with that mindset to decide the game, to play with that personality and keep taking risks. He is getting into those positions much more in recent games. It was an incredible goal.”

This is the Odegaard he has been waiting for: not just the artist, but the closer. The player who works relentlessly without the ball, sets the press, then steps up in the defining moments.

In Naples he did everything. He set the tone with his work-rate and composure. He finished the job with his left foot.

Onuoha highlighted his creativity, especially down the right, praising the way he “looks after the ball so well” and is “always looking for that pass to be able to create opportunities”. Crucially, he pointed out that Odegaard “even does the defensive work as well”.

Arsenal’s wastefulness in front of goal meant someone had to take responsibility. Odegaard did, exactly as a captain should.

Arteta knows that is the difference-maker in Europe. “Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, being decisive,” he said. The only frustration was that Arsenal did not kill Napoli off earlier, given “the amount of chances we created”.

The Holy Grail within reach?

The Champions League has always been the missing piece for Arsenal. They fell to Barcelona in the 2006 final. They were edged out by PSG on penalties last season. Two near-misses that still sting.

It remains their Holy Grail.

But this time feels different. This time they have a captain who is not just part of the story, but driving it. If Odegaard sustains this form – this blend of control, creativity and cold-blooded finishing – that “insurmountable” barrier suddenly looks a little less daunting.

Arsenal have already proved they can live with Europe’s best. With Odegaard in this mood, how far are they prepared to go to finally conquer them?