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LISBON, Portugal — Just when Arsenal were starting to wobble, Martin Odegaard produced a match-defining moment of quality. Manager Mikel Arteta will hope that can apply to their season as a whole after a difficult run of results in which the absence of their captain was keenly felt.
Managers bemoaning injuries is nothing new — and it can often serve as a useful distraction from other issues — but Odegaard’s return from an ankle injury has coincided with a dramatic upturn in their performances, continuing with Tuesday’s impressive 5-1 demolition of Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Champions League.
“He is an unbelievable player and the day he returned, there was a big smile on my face,” said Bukayo Saka of Odegaard. “You can see the chemistry we have, how much I enjoy playing with him. So I am happy he is back and I hope he stays fit for the rest of the season.”
Sporting went into this game unbeaten across 19 matches this season and fresh off beating Manchester City here at Estadio Jose Alvalade just three weeks ago, with Viktor Gyökeres‘s hat-trick confirming his status as one of Europe’s hottest properties. Manager Ruben Amorim has since departed for Manchester United and Gyokeres was a peripheral figure on Tuesday night, with Arsenal’s opening 45 minutes ranking as their finest half of football of the season.
It was a quintessential European away performance: clinical in attack, disciplined and dogged in defence. Their 3-0 half-time lead — coming through goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Magalhães — was thoroughly deserved, the first two emanating from a right-wing combination Sporting simply could not cope with.
Odegaard’s tendency to drift to the right flank to link up with Saka is a familiar pattern of play, but one so many teams struggle to combat: Nottingham Forest found that out to their cost last weekend when being soundly beaten at Emirates Stadium. With Jurriën Timber showing promising signs of being a more-than-able deputy for regular right-back Ben White (he’ll be out until the New Year following knee surgery), Arsenal’s potency down that wing was such that 65% of their attacks came via that channel in the first half.
Timber set up Martinelli for the opener, while Saka found Havertz for the second on 22 minutes. Gabriel’s third was a header from a corner, extending their impressive set-piece record, but after Gonçalo Inacio put a dent in their defensive record with a near post finish two minutes into the second half, Sporting sensed an improbable comeback. Arsenal began to exhibit nerves. Passes were misplaced, the pressure began to build, goalkeeper David Raya was booked for timewasting.
And then suddenly, Odegaard burst forward, cruising past Inacio and somehow, off balance but still purposeful, he worked his way into the box, where Ousmane Diomande could only foul him and concede a penalty. Saka drilled home the spot-kick before substitute Leandro Trossard added a late fifth, but Odegaard was the chief architect. He has more touches of the ball (82) than any other Arsenal player aside from Timber (84) and he didn’t even play the final 12 minutes, rested with Saturday’s tricky trip to West Ham in mind.
There is skepticism about the overall quality of the Portuguese league, but Arsenal made the gulf in class look massive here, which is to their considerable credit. For a start, Tuesday marked the first time Arsenal have scored five goals away from home in the Champions League since October, 2008. After coming into this game facing legitimate questions about their durability on the road in Europe — Arsenal hadn’t scored an away goal in this competition since December, during a run of one win in eight matches — this was an emphatic response.
Asked if this was the best European away performance of his five-year tenure, Arteta was clear.
“For sure, especially against the opponent that we played in their home,” he said post-match. “I don’t think they’ve lost here in 18 months. They’ve been in top form, they’ve been better than everyone they’ve played here. To play to that level, with the fluidity that we’ve done today … I’m very pleased.”
Arteta raised eyebrows when he described their 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan as the best they had played in a big European game for years, but that faith was thoroughly vindicated here.
“It’s true that the result is very different,” he said. “But with the performance and identity of what I saw against Inter I was very pleased. I knew that in that pathway good things were going to happen in Europe. Today we’ve been able to do that and replicate it and be more efficient in the opposition half. Very pleased because the team has played with so much courage. They are so good and watching them live I realise how good they are.”
Arteta also believes the return of several players from injury has increased the competitiveness in training, which in turn raises the level of performance. That said, Odegaard’s return feels most transformative when he plays like this.
The Premier League learned it last weekend and on Tuesday, the Champions League got the same message.