Arsenal’s captain says there is no secret behind his return to form. After a season wrecked by “weird injuries”, he simply feels like himself again, and he thinks the leaders still have more to give.
Martin Odegaard scored the only goal of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Hull City, following up after Noni Madueke’s 72nd-minute shot had been saved. It was his third league goal of the season already, which is two more than he managed in the whole of last season’s title-winning campaign.
That goal, which we covered in our Arsenal 1-0 Hull City match report, also matched a personal pattern. It is the third time Odegaard has scored three goals in the opening ten games of a Premier League season, after doing the same in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Why has Martin Odegaard found his form again?
According to the Norwegian, it is mostly about staying on the pitch. Injuries limited him to just 16 league starts last season, and he admits it never felt normal.
Odegaard said: “Obviously, compared to last season, it’s completely different. It was a frustrating one with all the injuries and lots of bad luck. It was hard to get into a rhythm.”
He went on: “This season I feel good. I feel like I’ve done well to get back to my best level. Honestly, I haven’t changed a lot. I think last year was a lot of bad luck. I had some weird injuries, twice with my shoulder and then two knee injuries.”
And the line that sums it up: “Last season felt really strange, so it feels great to be back to normal.”
That fits with what we have seen. A fit Odegaard sets the tempo, presses from the front and arrives in the box late, which is exactly how the Hull winner came. It is also a reminder of why talk of a move to Bayern Munich went nowhere, as we reported in our piece on the Odegaard and Bayern rumours.
A start that only six teams have matched
The Gunners have won nine of their opening ten league games for only the second time, the first being 2022-23. Only six other sides in Premier League history have taken at least 27 points from their first ten matches. Four of them had 28 points and went on to win the title, while the two with exactly 27 finished runners-up.
History has its warnings. Newcastle’s flying start in 1995-96 ended with Kevin Keegan’s famous “I’d love it” rant as Manchester United overhauled them. Arsenal know that feeling too. In 2022-23 they lost an eight-point lead in 17 days in April and ended up five points behind Manchester City.
Has that 2023 collapse made Arsenal stronger?
Odegaard believes so. He said: “I feel like we’ve grown every season, with everything that’s happened to us. We came really close for two or three years, finishing second. I think we learned a lot from that.”
He added: “Then obviously last year, to get through the way we did, I think the team has grown a lot mentally and become a lot stronger. I just feel like we’re a lot stronger at the moment. It’s great to see where we’re at.”
The depth backs him up. Four seasons ago, an injury to William Saliba was a big part of the late collapse. This time the Frenchman has barely been missed, with summer signing Ezri Konsa helping Mikel Arteta’s side to seven clean sheets in ten league games, a run that has David Raya chasing Petr Cech’s clean sheet record.
What does Odegaard want Arsenal to improve?
For all the points, the skipper is not satisfied with how tight some of these wins have been. Hull held out until the 72nd minute, and it finished 1-0 again.
Odegaard said: “I think we should be able to kill the game off a bit better. Get that first goal earlier and then create more. Be even more dangerous in and around the box. There are things we can definitely do better.”
Verdict: a fit Odegaard is Arsenal’s best signing
It is hard to argue with him. Arsenal are winning without being at their fluent best, and their captain is only now getting a proper run of games. If they start scoring earlier and putting teams away, the gap at the top could get a lot bigger.
The worry for the chasing pack is simple. Odegaard thinks there is more to come, and so do we.
