Martin Odegaard's Transformation: From Injury to Key Player
Martin Odegaard is not just back. He looks reborn.
Arsenal’s captain settled another big European night on Wednesday, crashing in the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Champions League win at Napoli. Four days after burying the decisive strike against Chelsea in the Premier League, he did it again in Naples, this time at the end of a 29-pass move that summed up the control he now exerts on this team.
That goal takes him to four in five appearances across all competitions this season. He scored just once in the whole of last year’s injury-ravaged 2025/26 campaign. The contrast is stark. So is the way he’s playing.
Arteta’s new Odegaard
Mikel Arteta sees two clear reasons for the transformation: fitness and freedom.
“First of all he needs to be available and last year he missed so many games through injuries,” the Arsenal manager said afterwards. Now he has his captain fully fit, he has rebuilt the structure around him.
“He's got that edge and different relationships around him as well and that helps,” Arteta explained. “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.”
The numbers back him up. Odegaard’s touches in the opposition box have leapt from 2.5 per 90 minutes last season to 4.3 per 90 so far this term. He is living higher up the pitch, closer to the damage.
Arteta links that shift directly to the quality around him.
“We have a lot of players that can take the ball there and progress the ball much better than we did in the past,” he said. “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 sits at the heart of that change. The summer signing already has four assists, three of them for Odegaard goals, including the winner at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. When Tzolis drives and slides passes between the lines, Odegaard can drift, arrive late and finish.
And it’s not just one side. Arsenal attacked down both flanks and through the middle in Naples, stretching Napoli until the hosts were clinging on.
Arsenal dominate, Odegaard decides
The shot count told its own story. Arsenal racked up 26 efforts, their highest total on record in the Champions League since 2003/04. The expected goals figure of 4.05 underlined how much they carved Napoli open. They should have scored more. A lot more.
Ben White’s chance, created by a gorgeous scooped ball from Odegaard and somehow squandered by Piero Hincapie, was just one glaring example. The move deserved a finish; the pass deserved a replay.
But when Arsenal needed someone to cut through the waste and frustration, Odegaard stepped up.
“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.”
Everything goes through him
From the first whistle in Naples, Odegaard looked like the best player on the pitch. He demanded the ball, dropped into pockets, then punched passes through Napoli’s lines. He oozed certainty. Everything went through him.
By the end, he had more touches, more passes and more chances created than anyone else on the field. Napoli simply couldn’t get close enough to disrupt him.
The goal itself, lashed in from the edge of the box after that long, patient passing sequence, captured the new version of Odegaard: fitter, braver, sharper in the final third. Last season he managed one goal in 36 games. This season, five matches in, he already has four.
He’s not just stitching play together. He’s finishing it.
“Martin is contributing goals,” Arteta added. “That is obviously impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, to be decisive, and certainly he was that today.”
Right now, Arsenal are riding the benefits of a captain playing with freedom and flair. If this is the level he sustains, the question is no longer whether Odegaard is back from injury. It’s how far this version of him can drag Arsenal in Europe and at home.
