Martin Odegaard scored his fourth goal in five games this season with the winner in Arsenal’s 1-0 Champions League victory at Napoli on Wednesday; Gunners captain only scored once in 2025/26 but higher position and fitness have facilitated fast start to the new campaign By Peter Smith and Nick Wright Martin Odegaard is a player transformed at the start of this season – and Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta puts his captain’s impressive form down to fitness and new positioning. Odegaard was the match-winner again for Arsenal on Wednesday, thumping in the only goal of the game in the Champions League victory at Napoli. That hit followed his clinching strike against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday and takes his total to four goals in five appearances this season across all competitions. Odegaard only scored once for Arsenal during an injury-hit 2025/26 campaign but now his stats are up across a range of other attacking metrics, too.
“First of all he needs to be available and last year he missed so many games through injuries,” said Arteta when asked in his post-match press conference about Odegaard’s improvement. The Gunners boss also highlighted how fresh combinations with team-mates are playing a part. “He’s got that edge and different relationships around him as well and that helps,” said Arteta. “He can start to go by different heights in the team, especially in the attacking phase, and when we get him into those positions he’s a really dangerous player.” That is demonstrated by Odegaard’s touches in the opposition box going up from 2.5 per 90 minutes last season to 4.3 per 90 minutes so far this term.
Arteta put Odegaard’s freedom to advance into more threatening positions down to the skills of his team-mates in open play, which the Arsenal head coach suggested had been missing previously. “We have a lot of players that can take the ball there and progress the ball much better than we did in the past,” Arteta explained. “When that happens, [Odegaard] needs to take different heights and angles and positions in order to disorganise the opponent and he’s done that really well.” Christos Tzolis is likely to be one of those players Arteta is referencing. The summer signing has four assists to his name already, with three of those coming for Odegaard goals, including the winner in Naples.
But the Arsenal attack down both flanks and through the middle looked extremely dangerous at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Arsenal had 26 shots in total – their most on record (since 2003/04) in the competition and an expected goals total of 4.05 showed they should have got far more for their efforts. Odegaard, though, did step up and deliver the key moment. “That’s what we need,” said Arteta.
“The players with the mindset to decide a game and play with personality. To keep taking chances and risks. “He’s getting into those positions much more in recent games and now you feel he has the emotional state that he knows the ball can go in, and he scored an incredible goal tonight.” Analysis by Sky Sports’ Nick Wright: Odegaard is a player in form. That much was clear from early in the game against Napoli.
The Arsenal captain oozed class and confidence, demanding the ball then finding the gaps in Napoli’s defence and threading passes forward. Everything went through him. His goal, brilliantly taken from the edge of the box after a 29-pass build-up, proved crucial. He now has four in five games this season, a stunning turnaround having only managed one in 36 last term.
Odegaard, uninhibited by injuries, looks a different player. Showing his team-mates how to finish was only one part of his performance. He also ended the game having had more touches, made more passes and created more chances than anyone else on the pitch. Napoli couldn’t really get near him.
The scooped pass to release Ben White for the golden chance somehow spurned by Piero Hincapie was one of many examples of his ingenuity against the massed ranks of Napoli players but there were plenty of others. He played with freedom and flair. “Martin is contributing goals,” added Arteta after the game. “That is obviously impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, to be decisive, and certainly he was that today.” Arsenal continue to feel the benefits.
