Arteta purrs as Odegaard renaissance helps Arsenal find their flow
Running, rotating, rampaging. If this is how Arsenal intend to go about their business, the naysayers who dismissed last season’s title triumph as little more than an exercise in set-piece mastery may need to find a new line of attack.
Perhaps this was how it was always supposed to look. Had key players not spent so much of the last two years in and out of the treatment room, Arsenal might have reached this point sooner. Instead, the repeated loss of attacking talent forced them to become more controlled and risk-averse. They perfected the art of defending, partly by design and partly through necessity, and built foundations solid enough for the team to begin exploring its creative side again.
Chelsea provided a proper test on Sunday. Morgan Rogers’ early goal gave them something to protect, and Pedro Neto offered a threat, while a steady succession of fouls attempted to disrupt Arsenal’s rhythm. None of it was enough to knock the Gunners out of their stride.
Roared on by a raucous Emirates crowd, Arsenal played with pace, power and purpose. The movement was sharp and there was always someone willing to attack the next pocket of space. When an opening appeared midway through the first half, Kai Havertz took it. His effort fizzed inside Emi Martinez’s near post, an indignity for the goalkeeper that prompted a jubilant reaction from Mikel Arteta on the touchline.
Rogers and Neto both went close before the interval, reminders that Chelsea carried a threat of their own, but Arsenal were increasingly dictating the game. Five minutes into the second half, a deliciously intelligent dummy from Havertz opened up the penalty area for Martin Odegaard, who hammered the ball home from 10 yards.
The German, seemingly playing in slippers, was at it again minutes later. He gently diverted an Odegaard pass around the corner and into the path of Bukayo Saka, whose effort drew a fine save from Martinez. It would have been the cherry on top, but a 2-1 victory was sweet enough.
Arteta loved it.
“It was an incredible game to watch, to coach,” he told the club website.
“It was fascinating from start to finish. The level, the quality, the way we competed, the way we attacked, the dynamics and the fluidity. The threat that we generated against that really tough opponent. It was incredible.”
“And then so many of the performances that we missed a lot because last year those players weren’t available for us, so we took the game to a different dimension.
“The crowd was incredibly connected to the team as well, and when that happens, it’s extremely difficult for the opponent to handle both things at the same time. So, a really happy afternoon.”
That different dimension was clear to see. Arsenal were not simply quicker or more aggressive than Chelsea. They were harder to read. Havertz dropped away from the centre-backs, Odegaard ran beyond him and Saka drifted inside from the left. The positions kept changing, but the connections remained.
The question is not whether Arsenal can play this way, but how often Arteta will have the personnel available to do it.
After a summer in which Christos Tzolis was the only addition to the attack, much depends on the manager’s established stars avoiding further injuries across a season that could stretch to 68 games. Given the surgeries required by Saka, Odegaard and Havertz over the last couple of years, it is a lot to ask. When all three are fit and firing, however, the possibilities remain mouthwatering.
“Those connections between players, that level of threat to occupy different spaces is very unpredictable, something that we are insisting a lot, and today it happened,” reflected Arteta.
“You see where we are in relation to the level that is in the league, and how we can sustain that. We can still improve in many areas, a lot, and that has to be the narrative and the demands between ourselves, because we can reach better levels still, individually and collectively, and we’re going to continue to do so.”
Central to that optimism is the renewed influence of Odegaard. After a difficult, injury-disrupted campaign, the captain looks liberated again. He is playing with confidence, taking risks and making forward runs that were largely absent last season. His winning goal was the most obvious reward, but the aggression and imagination behind it were just as encouraging.
On Odegaard’s renaissance, Arteta told his post-game press conference: “First of all, he feels fit and confidence-wise, it’s the highest I’ve seen him. He has a point to prove from last season as well, from missing so much football.
“Kai is the same; Bukayo is the same. We missed so many attacking players last season for long, long periods – I’m not sure how many games they played together last season, but probably not many.
“When you start to feel the chemistry they have between them and what they can produce, it’s great. But for me, he gets to that point because he’s enjoying his football. You have to enjoy what you do, to play with real intent, and that’s what I saw today. He was running forward; he took shots, created so many situations for his teammates – he was great.”
“It’s no question that we have some great players. I believe in them and that they can improve, and they can have another version of themselves that is even better than what we’ve seen. If the team is better and the players are better, everyone will benefit from it, and that’s the objective.”
Last season, the Gunners proved they could win by controlling games, defending their box and punishing opponents from dead balls. None of that needs to disappear. If Sunday was a sign they can add greater attacking freedom and unpredictability to those hard-earned qualities, this side could become the first Arsenal team to win back-to-back league titles since the 1930s.
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