Martin Odegaard Shines in Arsenal's Victory Over Manchester City

Martin Odegaard walked off in Cardiff with the Community Shield in one hand and the man-of-the-match award in the other. The numbers on the scoreboard – Arsenal 3-0 Manchester City – told one story. His performance told another: the captain who limped through last season looks ready to run the show again.

Odegaard back at the heart of it

A year ago, Arsenal finally ended their 22-year wait for a Premier League title, yet their chief creator spent much of the campaign watching from the sidelines. Knee and shoulder problems chopped his rhythm to pieces. He started only 16 league games. One goal. Seven assists. His leanest return since making his move from Real Madrid permanent in 2021-22.

For a player of his craft, those figures jarred. So did the sight of him missing game after game.

On Sunday, there was none of that fragility. Against City in Cardiff, Odegaard produced the kind of all-action display that once defined the early phase of Mikel Arteta’s rebuild. He pressed, he probed, he dictated. Then, late on, he added the flourish: a ruthless third goal, selling Gianluigi Donnarumma with a dummy that left the goalkeeper on the turf before rolling the ball home.

It was the swagger Arsenal had been missing.

A midfield built to dominate

Arteta has not stood still since lifting the title. The summer headline was the £75m arrival of Bruno Guimaraes, a statement that Arsenal intend to control midfields, not just compete in them.

Inside the dressing room, the belief matches the spending. Mikel Merino has already called Arsenal’s midfield options “probably the best in football” – a bold claim, but one that looks less outlandish when you list the names.

• Odegaard.
• Guimaraes, who impressed in his 45 minutes on the pitch.
• Myles Lewis-Skelly.
• Martin Zubimendi.
• Declan Rice.
• Eberechi Eze.
• Merino himself.

It is depth, variety and quality stacked together.

The pressure that comes with that kind of competition can break some players. It seems to be sharpening Odegaard. On Sunday he led Arsenal in passes completed (55 of 58), dribbles (3 of 3) and possession regains (nine). He didn’t just decorate the game; he drove it.

Those who questioned whether he should still wear the armband after a patchy, injury-hit season will have found fewer arguments this time.

Pain, then a reset

The frustration of last year still lingers in his words.

“Last year was really a big struggle with a lot of difficult moments. To miss so many games because of injury was really frustrating,” he said after the win. “It is the worst thing for a footballer to not be able to be on the pitch and I had quite a lot of weird injuries, and bad luck.”

He needed a different ending, and he got one. He finished the club season fit, celebrated a title, then carried that momentum into the World Cup with Norway. Five starts from six games, four assists, and the sense that his touch and timing had returned.

“It was good for me to end the season with a title, here, and then a good World Cup. Then I had my break and I feel good, ready to go again.

“What I have just worked on is to use that as motivation for this year and to come back stronger. And to use all of those experiences in a positive way.”

This looks like a player who has turned irritation into fuel.

New partner, familiar control

Against City, the intrigue was not just whether Odegaard could find his own level again, but how he would mesh with Guimaraes. The early signs were encouraging. They appeared to click quickly, dovetailing rather than crowding each other’s space.

“Sometimes you are just in the flow. You need to find that on the pitch,” Odegaard said. “All of us were flowing pretty good out there. I will just try to keep that up and keep going.”

Arteta has seen enough of footballers returning from long layoffs to know how hard it is to rebuild momentum. This time, he senses something different.

“Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum,” the Arsenal manager said. “So I'm sure this year if we can maintain him fit, available with the players around him, we're going to see a very different Martin.

“And I sense from the first day that he joined [pre-season training] that he has something else on the belly that he wants to prove and show, because the team needs it as well.”

That hunger, combined with the talent around him, changes the picture. Arsenal already know how to win the league without a fully firing Odegaard. The question now is what they might look like with him at full tilt, running games, threading passes, scoring goals like the one that floored Donnarumma.

If Sunday is the benchmark, the Premier League champions may feel as if they have signed a new playmaker without spending a penny.