Arsenal had an important victory over Brighton in round 17 of the Premier League and rose to the top of the rankings. The reason is because in the following match, Liverpool shared points with Man United in the English Derby. In addition to improving the score, the “Gunners” have regained their spirit of excitement after two matches without knowing the smell of victory. Notably, Martin Odegaard’s return to form is the key to bringing the Emirates Stadium team to success.
In the confrontation with Brighton, Odegaard showed the qualities of one of the best midfielders in Europe at the present time. The Norwegian star controlled the tempo perfectly and his confidence was evident during his 90 minutes on the field. Technical handling situations, touching or passing the ball all show the sophistication of The Gunners captain.
Odegaard found Bukayo Saka with a gorgeous pass with the outside of his left boot from the right wing. The pass was perfectly-weighted and allowed Saka to slide the ball back across for Gabriel Martinelli.
Unfortunately, Martinelli could not keep his effort down and the strike went over the bar. But Clinton Morrison, speaking on BBC Radio Five Live (broadcast on December 17; 14:33), was full of praise for the brilliance of the Arsenal captain in creating the opportunity.
“The pass is outstanding, one of the passes of the season! He put all sorts of spin on that and it was a great little cutback from Saka and Martinelli really should be making it 1-0,” he said.
“But the pass from Odegaard, outstanding football.”
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Odegaard escaped the pressure of two Brighton players before passing to Bukayo Saka and opening up a counterattack (!)
After the match, the fans were very excited after witnessing Odegaard’s classy performance
One person said: ‘Odegaard makes football look easy’
The second person continued: “He was on fire today. Part of me thought of Bergkamp at points, he was just excellent. Great to see a Champ Man/FIFA youth legend realize his potential. And we got him for £30mil iirc. Unbelievable.
A third person expressed: “He was a wonderkid when he joined us, and now he’s living up to that potential, an absolute magician of a player”
Odegaard had 74 touches with a pass accuracy of 93 per cent. He made four key passes and won four dribbles and was unlucky to end up without a goal or an assist.
Although he did not score in the victory against Brighton, the 25-year-old midfielder played another big role such as shaping the match and setting up Arsenal’s attacks.
With the sublimation of Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice, Arsenal completely dominated the midfield against Brighton. Rice excelled in interception and ball recovery duties. Meanwhile, Odegaard regulates the pace of the match and can create scoring opportunities whenever the opponent has an opening. The combination of Odegaard’s technique and Rice’s physicality is becoming Arsenal’s most powerful weapon.
Speaking after the game, Arteta said that Odegaard celebrated his birthday in a great way and it was a huge performance, he told Arsenal.com: “He wanted to celebrate his beautiful birthday today in a great way – and he’s done it, with a win, with a huge performance.”
“The way they play, the way they press you, they go man-to-man and you have to be so good, so accurate, so precise, so intelligent to do what we have done today. We’ve done it.”
Odegaard made several clever passes to outwit the Brighton defence, but the Gunners relied on the cutting edge with their finishing. The Norwegian was also denied a goal with a brilliant save.
The £30 million signing now needs to replicate the showing against Liverpool on the road next weekend. A victory at Anfield would be a huge statement from Arsenal in their title pursuit.