Arsenal fans could be forgiven for thinking that this feeling – actually finding enjoyment in following their football club – might never come around again. The club’s “banter era” seemingly lasted for an eternity, but gradually Mikel Arteta and his players are starting to change the narrative; mockery from rival fans is slowly being replaced by reluctant respect and in a telltale sign of progress, some pundits have even started policing their post-match celebrations.
Regardless of whether Arsenal’s top-four challenge ends in glory or glorious failure by the close of play on 22 May, at long last, theirs is a team with an easily identifiable philosophy, both in terms of playing style and recruitment. In just over two years, Arteta has remodelled the team around youth – a proven method to get the fans to buy in – with eight of the club’s 11 most consistent starters aged 24 or under and that youthful enthusiasm has ushered in a quick-paced, progressive playing style.
Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are the homegrown Hale End heroes, Gabriel Martinelli is a Brazilian wildcard with jet packs in his boots and Alexandre Lacazette is the experienced leader of a talented young group. Welding all of Arsenal’s component parts together is Martin Odegaard, the hard-running playmaker who links artistry with industry; in other words, Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil successor, but now with added pressing.
Odegaard’s modest goal contribution numbers this season – five goals and three assists from 26 Premier League appearances – partly explain why his contribution towards Arsenal’s Champions League charge has been overlooked in comparison to his more clinical teammates. Arteta has been effusive in his praise for the Norwegian, but also challenged him to “create more goals” and “score more goals”.
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Spurs move into top four ahead of Arsenal with Newcastle thrashing - ratings and reaction03 April, 2022While the 23-year-old certainly has the capacity to become more impactful in the final third, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is the centrepiece of Arteta’s team, the glue that holds it all together. Before this weekend’s fixtures, only five players in the Premier League had created more chances than Odegaard and with the exception of Kevin De Bruyne, each of the others ahead of him have played at least 359 minutes more, the equivalent of four games. He also ranks joint-sixth for passes played into the opposition’s penalty area, a measure of his inclination to often attempt the killer ball.
Unfortunately, data that records the pass before the final pass is much harder to come by, but you suspect that Odegaard would feature prominently in the charts for that particular metric too. An eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head flick around the corner to Lacazette who teed up Martinelli to score a screamer in the recent win against Watford was as cute a pass as you’re likely to see in the Premier League this season.
While playmakers can be prone to drifting in and out of games, Odegaard is generally heavily involved, often featuring in Arsenal’s top three players for touches – a stat normally dominated by defenders and defensive midfielders. That comes as no surprise to those who watched him dictating first-team matches in his mid-teens.
“He was 14 years old when he first started training with the first team, but he even played a friendly match for the first team when he was 13 years old,” recalls Bjorn Petter Ingebretsen, head coach of Stromsgodset where Odegaard shot to prominence.
It was at Stromsgodset, a club situated in the city of Drammen where Odegaard is from, that his father Hans Erik, also an attacking midfielder, played 242 times between 1992-2003.
“He dominated a friendly against Videoton from Hungary as a No 6,” adds Stromsgodset’s CEO, Magne Nilsen. “He was 15 but he played like 30-year-old midfield maestro. It was something special. When the season started he took the next step, he made an impressive debut against Aalesund, a few weeks later he scored his first goal at home against Sarpsborg. He dominated the league games and went on to make his full debut for the national team that summer, all by the age of 15.”
Odegaard was expected to add craft and guile to Arsenal, but his work-rate may have come as a surprise to some Emirates regulars. According to FBREF, Odegaard leads the way in Arsenal’s squad for “pressures”, defined as the “number of times pressure is applied to an opposing player who is receiving, carrying or releasing the ball”. In addition, he has made the second-most tackles, only behind defensive midfielder Thomas Partey for whom winning the ball is a key part of his job description.
“He’s given us incredible work-rate because the boy works so hard,” Arteta said in March last year. “He’s the right personality for the dressing room – really humble and hard-working.”
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Arteta’s assessment is echoed by Ingebretsen. “He was humble and grounded, and always respectful and polite, Martin has good values and lives by them,” he says. “But he was determined and ambitious as a young boy. He wanted to train as much as possible, always trying to improve every aspect of his game.”
Odegaard has been good for Arsenal; equally, Arsenal have been good for Odegaard. Strangely, given how hard Real Madrid pushed to sign him as a 15-year-old – they beat over 60 clubs to his signature according to Nilsen – they seemed unwilling to ever actually use him. Odegaard made only 11 first-team appearances for the club, spending four seasons on loan at Heerenveen, Vitesse Arnhem and Real Sociedad before ending up at Arsenal, a club that could both match his ambition and afford to buy him.
The move seems to have come at a perfect point for both club and player. After years of underachievement, Arsenal are finally heading in a positive direction. And Odegaard is central to their future plans. Everything is in place for both to evolve at the same time.
“We have always had a strong belief that he would perform at the biggest football stage,” Nilsen says. “Martin is just something special. This is just the start.”
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