Odegaard's Resurgence Fuels Arsenal's Champions League Ambitions

Arsenal were a single game from immortality last season. Premier League champions at last, Champions League runners-up on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain – and they did it with Martin Odegaard running on fumes, his brilliance dulled by injury and frustration.

Now the captain is fully upright, shoulders loose, knees sound, playing like a footballer who has been waiting years to feel this free. At 27, the Norwegian has opened the new campaign as if determined to rewrite the story of both himself and his club.

If Arsenal could win the title and fall in a shootout in the Champions League final with Odegaard stuck in second gear, what happens when he is already dictating games, at home and in Europe, with this kind of authority?

Odegaard takes control of Europe – again

Naples felt like a warning shot to the rest of the continent. Arsenal controlled their opening Champions League game, toyed with Napoli for long spells, and yet the scoreboard refused to budge. Chances came and went. The tension grew.

Then Odegaard stepped in.

Fifteen minutes from time, he drifted into space, opened up that left foot and ripped a stunning strike past the Napoli defence to seal a 1-0 win. One swing, job done. The sort of goal that separates good sides from serious contenders.

With Odegaard in this mood, Arsenal are starting to look like a team that can walk into any stadium and believe the night belongs to them.

This is not the version of their captain that limped through last season. Knee and shoulder problems restricted him to 36 games in all competitions, just one goal and seven assists. He featured in only 24 Premier League matches as Arsenal finally ended their 24-year wait for the title. The team soared; his own standards did not.

A summer with Norway offered the first hints that something was returning. Odegaard helped drive his country to the World Cup quarter-finals, where they fell to England, and his touch and timing began to sharpen. The start of this season has pushed him far beyond that level.

The swagger returns

The first real statement came in Cardiff. In the Community Shield against Manchester City, Arsenal already led when Odegaard produced a finish that bordered on cruel. He sat Gianluigi Donnarumma down with a feint, then simply rolled the ball into an empty net to complete a 3-0 win. Audacity, composure, total control.

He has not eased off since. He scored in the 3-0 win over Coventry City. Then came Chelsea at Emirates Stadium, Arsenal trailing and their perfect league start under threat. Odegaard timed his run into the box to perfection, ghosting onto Kai Havertz’s clever dummy and lashing an emphatic finish past Emiliano Martinez to turn the game and secure a 2-1 comeback victory.

That goal, and the one in Naples, carried the same signature: intelligence, conviction, a player who sees the whole pitch and trusts his body to execute what his mind imagines. This is a lavishly gifted footballer finally back at the peak of his powers, surrounded by a squad buzzing with the confidence that last season’s breakthrough has unleashed.

Arsenal will need every ounce of it. The road ahead in the Champions League is brutal: Real Madrid coming to London, a trip to Bayern Munich on the horizon. Nights where a single lapse can wreck a campaign.

The way they dismantled Napoli’s defensive shell suggested they are ready. The Italians set up with a deep, disciplined block straight out of Max Allegri’s playbook, content to absorb, frustrate, and wait. Arsenal stayed patient. They moved the ball, probed, shifted angles, refused to panic. When the opening finally appeared, Odegaard punished them.

Already, this looks like a side intent on building on what they did last year rather than admiring it.

A captain with a point to prove

Mikel Arteta has hinted that his captain is playing like a man with unfinished business. Arsenal had their glory last season; Odegaard, by his own standards, did not. That edge shows in everything he does now.

Former Premier League defender Nedum Onuoha, speaking on Match of the Day, put it plainly: Odegaard “will want to have a bigger impact on the team this season”.

Onuoha sees the same hunger in Europe as well.

“They have got unfinished business in the Champions League,” he said. “He wants to be the first captain of Arsenal to lift that trophy.

“You would not back against them winning it based on what we’ve seen them do in this competition in the past two seasons, but he 100% takes Arsenal to a different level when he is on form and playing like this.

“That’s the way it should be as well. I think when he is at his best, Arsenal are at their best.

“I think there have been times when he’s not been at his best and as a team they can still look good and win games, but the best version of Arsenal in my opinion comes when Odegaard is pulling the strings, because so many other players will be involved in the way they attack, and the way they attack will look different at certain points.”

Right now, Odegaard looks smooth as silk. Arsenal do too. That is no coincidence.

“This is what we need,” said Arteta. “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.”

In Naples he did more than score. He worked, chased, and harried, setting the tone for the press and the tempo. It was leadership by example, wrapped inside match-winning quality.

Onuoha again: “Arsenal have obviously looked good at the start of the season and he has been a big reason for that. Some of his creativity, especially on the right-hand side, has been excellent.

“He looks after the ball so well. He is always looking for that pass to be able to create opportunities and he even does the defensive work as well.”

Chasing the Holy Grail

Arsenal’s dominance against Napoli was stark. They racked up 26 shots – their highest tally in a single Champions League match since records began in 2003-04 – and it was also the most efforts Napoli have faced in that period. Time and again chances went begging, until Odegaard finally found the finish the performance deserved.

“Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, being decisive,” said Arteta. “We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created.”

That is the standard now. Not just winning, but winning with a ruthlessness befitting a team that has been brushing up against Europe’s elite and feels ready to sit among them.

The Champions League has long been Arsenal’s missing piece. They have twice reached the final, losing to Barcelona in 2006 and to PSG last season. The trophy remains their Holy Grail, the one major prize that continues to elude them.

If Odegaard keeps playing like this, that barrier starts to look less like a wall and more like a door waiting to be kicked open.