Martin Odegaard was pleased with Arsenal’s reaction to consecutive defeats on the road as the Gunners ran out 3-0 winners against Southampton at the Emirates.
The Norway international scored his third goal in 10 days to double the lead on 27 minutes after Alex Lacazette had ruthlessly broken the deadlock six minutes earlier.
Having looked nervy in the opening stages, Mikel Arteta’s players took the game by the scruff of the neck after that and should have had more goals than the solitary strike added by Gabriel in the second half.
“I’m very happy,” Odegaard told Arsenal.com. “We needed the win today after two defeats and we needed to strike back and we did that with a good game, a good performance and a 3-0 win, so it’s a good day.
“I think we had some moments where we didn’t manage the ball in the best of ways, especially in the first half we lost a lot of second balls. We played with a little too much stress in the moment, but I think after that we controlled the game and the second half was brilliant. [It finished] 3-0 so we’re very happy.”
Reflecting on his recent form in front of goal – something Arteta praised in his post-game press conference – Odegaard added: “I’m very happy to help the team to get results. I’ve scored in other games as well but we didn’t win so it doesn’t mean anything.
“Today it’s important that we won so I’m very happy. Yes, it [was my first headed goal], it’s not my biggest strength. I would say I was in the right place at the right time.
“We practice these things every day, every day we play out from the back and we practice different ways to get up from the back and that goal was the result of what we do on the training pitch.”
Like Odegaard, Bukayo Saka was pleased with the points but admitted it was far from a vintage Arsenal performance.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “It’s a solid performance, we didn’t play our best, especially on the first half, we lost it so many times, it was sloppy. But we managed to get the two goals and control the rest of the game. It was solid from us.”
Odegaard was arguably the last recruit who still needed to prove doubters it was a smart buy – along with White maybe, considering their prices.
Of course, he will still need to keep performing for a few months, but it does look like he’s on the right path.
That whole transfer window looks like a fantastic piece of business a bit more everyday.
Yeah, I really like him. But sometimes there are just shades of that luxury 10 player that just isn’t relevant anymore. He feels like he’s got that Dani Ceballos thing sometimes when he runs too.
But he’s such a young lad and I think he needs to just bulk up a bit and not play so safe. If he could learn the Smith spin and always move the ball forwards, he could be genuinely world class.
I think it’s mostly about adjusting to the physicality of the league, muscling up, and learning how not to get pushed off the ball quite so easily (or draw more intelligent fouls a la Lacazette). If you look closely, I actually think there have been signs of improvement in those areas over the past 2-3 games.
I don’t think you are right about this. Ceballos tended to slow down attacking play, while Odegaard tends to speed it up with quick passes and returns. (In that sense he is like Ozil–not Ceballos; but that doesn’t make him a “luxury player.”) etp is right that Odegaard’s problem has been being pushed off the ball too easily; challenges that would be fouls in other leagues are fine with Martin Atkinson and his brethren.
I think the ‘issue’ in the summer will be with Saliba. If he comes into the fold, we would surely need to change formation. 3 at the back Saliba/White/Gabriel with wing backs looks pretty mighty, but what then happens with the number 10?
Disagree, its a long season and you need 3-4 top CBs to make it work, especially if we are back in Europe. Rotate 3 CBs and keep it fresh.
For what it’s worth, according to WhoScored, Mavropanos (!) is currently in the *season’s* Best 11 for all five top leagues. And the goalkeeper in that team is Aaron Ramsdale. (Others in the 11 include Mbappe, Lewandowski, Benzema, and Salah, with Cancelo and Alexander-Arnold at fullback, so it’s not like this is some random selection.)
He is getting goals in attack. But he is still not being the final ball guy we bought him to be, zero assists. Our attack suffers because we still lack a high volume chance creator even with Odegaard in the team. He has to prove doubters wrong with concrete results to show for.
Look at how many “pre-assists” he’s contributed on these vintage counter-attacking goals. Concrete results don’t always show up in established stat categories.
Pre-assists is such an underrated stat.
All stats are overrated stats. The only ones that count are wins and losses. The ball can deflect of someone’s backside into the path of someone who puts it in the top corner from 30 yards and it’s counted as an assist. If pre-assists become a thing then we might as well just play the season out on playstation.
Can the downvotes explain to me why stats are more important than wins and losses? Genuinely interested.
wins and losses are also stats but in short: a player can play well but the team can still lose. a player can play badly but the team can still win. stats can give you a headsup as to which players are contributing
A player can be man of the match and not show up on the stats, that’s my point. How many pre assists or progressive passes did tomiasyu or ramsdale have yesterday? To me who actually watched the game and not just read the stats they were our best 2 players.
I think the general idea is that stats aren’t everything, and they’re also not nothing. They can point out things that a team or player are doing particularly well, not well enough, or average. That includes goals, assists, distance run, forward passing, presses, carries, tackles, interceptions, turnovers, and a bunch of other things. Each gives you a small piece of information – people can cherry pick them to paint whatever picture they like, but it’s important to look at all of it as a full picture, and that includes, as you say, what doesn’t show up in the stats –… Read more »
Or you could watch the game, the stats don’t account for the other team. Didn’t take stats for Benitez to figure out to sub on Gomez on Monday night. He watched the game and knew an extra man in midfield was the way to go.
It seems like you’re shifting the goal posts, so to speak. It really depends on the question at hand. Looks like people here were debating how useful Odegaard has been this season, which can be looked at both with stats (has he been contributing to goals by way of assists, key passes, and ‘pre- assists’, among others), and without stats (how has he been linking with teammates, has he looked dangerous, has he responded well to the physical demands of the league, body language, etc). Those are the kinds of things you look at to analyse a player’s contribution in… Read more »
Stats don’t matter is my point. We play west ham on Wednesday. They have Declan rice in midfield, best midfielder in the league. It means they can play 20 or 30 yards futher from their own goal than we do. We play city liverpool or Chelsea we turtle. We play the whole game uphill. West ham play them and they give as good as they get. Where’s the stat that accounts for rice? Watch on Wednesday, same as when we had Vieira, tilts the pitch. If we play lacazette and odegaard on Wednesday west ham will play most of the… Read more »
You tried. 🙂
The lack of assists is due to others not finishing more than him not creating. That back heel for saka was delicious and should been a goal. And it’s not the first time.
Odegaard is creating chances. If you want ‘final ball’ stats, look at the key passes, not assists.
2 key passes against Southampton.
4 key passes at Everton.
4 key passes at Man United.
2 key passes against Newcastle.
Before that he was on the bench for a while.
He would also have had a goal in all of those games if Auba didn’t ‘steal’ his goal against Newcastle. He’s doing really well lately.
What about the penalty he gave away against utd. Does that affect his xg or his pre-assists. I think he’s playing well, but using stats to prove it is stupid. There’s no stat for Everton bringing on Gomez to make a 3rd man In midfield and changing the game. Gomez obviously became odegaard’s man to pick up? He puts in a lot of effort off the ball, but he’s totally ineffective. He has the same problem as ozil or similar players football keeps changing and at the moment a #10 is easily nullified by good teams.
Can the down voters explain to me why I’m wrong? Lot of people on here want to blame xhaka for not qualifying for champions of. Name me the team’s that are doing well with a #10. If anyone suggests Manchester United because of bruno I rest my case. Arsene persisted with the #10 if arteta does same he deserves all he gets.
De Bruyne
He’s not a no.10 in the traditional sense! It’s that simple. He has a bigger all round game, defends more, presses more.
In what sense? I like his effort off the ball, but let’s be honest, he’s not a lot more athletic than ceballos.
Statistics are an important tool, most people understand this. And as you say many blame Xhaka, and many have shown that Xhaka is not that useless actually, through statistics, then again people will say like you, they watched the game and he sucked. Many hated Gilberto too. Stats proved the haters wrong.
The downvoters are right, no offense, but things are not black or white there are lot a grey inbetween.
He’s one of our best pressers. He triggers the press – when he goes they all do (or at least are meant to!), and he leads by example. Yesterday they forced Southampton back to their keeper loads of times. Npt sure why you think it was ineffective?
Our press is non existent. I said #10 are basically obsolete in modern football. The top 3 teams in league don’t play with a #10. The best pressing team in the league don’t play with a 10. The only team left standing in champions league that play with a 10 are Manchester United. I don’t think that will be the case for very long. I could be wrong wrong, but it it doesn’t seem to be working out for us we’ve persisted with it since we signed ozil and it hasn’t worked. Odegaard is a nice player, but even his… Read more »
You said stats are stupid. I think I have identified why you are getting downvotes.
I think he has created about half of our chances, at some point we gotta point at the finisher rather than the creator. That said this has been a problem for Ødegård throughout he’s career, attackers not scoring on chances he has created. Maybe he is to clever for his own good or something. Statistically he should have more assists, but he cant do both so he switched up and scores them instead, probably for the best right now.
We watched this for years under Wenger, what now we win the odegaard is misunderstood league? If only the rest of the teams played fair and settled the game on expected xg instead of goals scored? It’s crap the only stat that matters is wins and losses. Maybe they’ll change the rules and stats will matter. This season I think its going to come down to points.
Actually the only stat which really matters is # of trophies. (Unless you go an entire season unbeaten of course).
Pre-assists > assists > goals > wins > trophies.
You draw your bottom line at wins, fair enough. I guess the point is that going back further in the food chain is a decent indicator of how to achieve those wins.
Is there a point to your reply other than being slightly bitchy, and not understanding the value of statistics ?
I’m glad they acknowledge the nervy first 20minutes of the first half. Hopefully, they know next time where to adjust going forward. Thank you lads, thank you.
Yeah, the first 20 minutes was very frustrating to watch.
I would love to see him run more with the ball and attempt more take ons like Smith Rowe….Had a decent performance last night..
Yeah at his best his dribbling is at times almost messiesque, but a lack of speed hurts him a little in that aspect of his game.
He should be leading in our risky creative passing. Also shouting at others to do the same. He is vocal already.
Player’s actions sometimes suggest, they look to preserve their pass completion stats first, team’s creativity comes second.
Saka is the only player averaging more key passes than Odegaard this season.
Andros Townsend (30) and Matt Ritchie (28) have more key passes than Saka (25), ESR (18) and Ødegaard (21) this season. Would you ever see them as more creative than our players? The key pass statistic considers ANY pass that leads to an attempt on goal. Even if that pass has a low chance of becoming an assist because the scoring chance is low. E.g. if Xhaka squares a ball to Partey who then proceeds to try a long range effort. That’s still a key pass. A big chance is a scenario where the eventual striker is generally expected to… Read more »
You seem to see him as quite a conservate player? I’m confused cos I feel that’s not the player I see. He really reads the game, combines well with Saka, takes the calculated risk when it’s there to be taken! And has a sumptuous touch.
He seems to go through periods of one or the other, both within and across games. At the start vs Southampton he was all over the place, misplacing passes, and then later on was everywhere yet passing effectively and keeping things moving much quicker and more accurately. Other games he’s hovered around the halfway line not sure about passing forward at all. Hopefully he continues to grow the confidence to play the more positive way for greater portions of games moving forwards.
I noticed right from the beginning how quick he got the ball off his feet. He did it the whole game. I hope we see that having both he and ESR this holiday death march allows us the ability to pick up some points on others. Our business this last transfer window may be the best in the league.
Ødegaard has improved a lot the past games. He can only get better as time goes on.
I hope we can get both Ødegaard and ESR working in the same lineup – that could be fun