Scoreline flatters Napoli as dominant Arsenal start Champions League campaign with victory

Arsenal began their latest pursuit of Champions League glory with a deserved 1-0 victory over Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Martin Odegaard struck the winner 15 minutes from time as Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s team extended their perfect start to the season despite a scoreline that hardly reflected their superiority.

The Gunners controlled possession and territory for long periods but repeatedly failed to convert promising opportunities, allowing Napoli to remain in contention until the final whistle.

Arteta made four changes from Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea, bringing Viktor Gyokeres, Piero Hincapie, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze into the starting XI.

Arsenal established control quickly, although Bukayo Saka’s acrobatic attempt provided Alex Meret with a comfortable early save.

Napoli occasionally threatened on the counter, with Kevin De Bruyne testing David Raya from distance, but the clearest first-half opportunities belonged to Arsenal.

Eze intelligently headed Saka’s delivery into Merino’s path midway through the half, only for the midfielder’s close-range header to be tipped over by Meret.

Hincapie almost caught the Napoli goalkeeper out with a miscued cross before Arsenal wasted their best opportunity of the opening period.

Odegaard released Saka behind the defence with an excellent pass, but the winger fired well over with only Meret to beat.

Arsenal’s wastefulness continued after the restart when White headed across goal for Hincapie, who somehow lifted his effort over from close range.

Christos Tzolis also fired over after his introduction as Napoli continued to survive despite Arsenal spending much of the contest on the front foot.

The breakthrough finally arrived in the 75th minute.

Arsenal patiently worked possession before White and Tzolis combined, with the latter finding Odegaard on the edge of the penalty area.

The captain produced the quality Arsenal’s finishing had previously lacked, drilling a superb effort across Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and in off the far post.

It was Odegaard’s fourth goal in five matches, continuing his outstanding start after also scoring the winner against Chelsea three days earlier.

Arsenal had further opportunities to make the result comfortable, while Napoli’s best late opening ended with De Bruyne sending the ball across goal rather than shooting when well placed.

The Gunners ultimately secured another clean sheet and a fifth consecutive competitive victory this season.

Having reached last season’s Champions League final, Arsenal wanted to begin their latest European campaign by demonstrating that they remain serious contenders.

The finishing will need improvement, but the authority with which they controlled a difficult away assignment in Naples delivered precisely that message.

The post Scoreline flatters Napoli as dominant Arsenal start Champions League campaign with victory first appeared on ArsenalNews.co.uk.