Martin Odegaard came to Arsenal’s rescue in Naples, as he blasted Arsenal to a one nil win from outside the box, to save the blushes of several of his teammates, who’s collective profligacy so nearly cost Arsenal two points in their Champions League opener.
The lineup
As expected, Mikel Arteta made changes to the team that beat Chelsea at the weekend with Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christos Tzolis and Kai Havertz all given a breather. Piero Hincapie came in for his first start of the season at left back, somewhat surprisingly, Mikel Merino was preferred over Martin Zubimendi and Bruno Guimaraes in midfield, with Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze, completing the team.
Ezri Konsa started his first Champions League game for The Arsenal, with Cristhian Mosquera still not fit enough to return and Jurrien Timber, for some unknown reason, omitted from the squad entirely, despite travelling to Naples.
The match
Let’s put it this way, if it had been a boxing match, they probably would have called it off!! For anyone who doesn’t get that reference, it just means it was VERY one sided. Napoli actually had a few snap shots early on, mostly on the break, with one causing a bit of a nervy moment for David Raya, but that was as good as it got for the Italians, as the rest of the first half was played nearly entirely in their half.
Napoli boss Massimo Allegri had a clear game plan and it involved sitting extremely deep, in the lowest of low blocks and trying to get Arsenal on the break through Rasmus Hojlund’s pace. I suppose it was sort of bold, in a way. To give up that much territory and sticking steadfast to your gameplan regardless of what was unfolding in front of his eyes.
Thankfully, it didn’t work, as Arsenal penned Napoli in for large periods and Ezri Konsa bullying Hojlund whenever the ball crossed half way.
Unfortunately, Arsenal’s finishing was somewhat lacking for the vast majority of the game, as Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka passed up really good chances to open the scoring in the first half, with the Italians sneaking into the break level.
The second half was probably even more one sided, as Arsenal relentlessly pushed them further and further back. This time it was Piero Hincapie’s turn to conjure up a miss, that defied logic, as the age old fear of ‘not another one of those days’ found it’s way into the thoughts of Arsenal fans everywhere.
However, in this sort of form, Martin Odegaard does whatever he wants and if he wants Arsenal to win the game, he’ll do it on his own if he has to…and that’s exactly what he did.
Some neat interplay on the right of the Napoli box led to Odegaard unleashing a powerful drive from the edge of the box that flew into the bottom left corner, via the post, to finally break the deadlock and give Arsenal a huge chance of coming away with all three points.
The chances for Arsenal didn’t stop there as substitute Noni Madueke missed a one on one when played through by fellow sub Kai Havertz, before laying on a chance for yet another substitute in Christos Tzolis, who’s goal bound effort was blocked by a defender.
At the other end, Kevin De Bruyne had a chance to steal an unlikely (and frankly undeserved) point for Napoli, but got his pass all wrong and the chance was gone.
Still Arsenal pushed to complete the job and this time it was Tzolis’ turn to test the keeper from inside the penalty area with his saved effort being turned in by an offside Kai Havertz late in stoppage time, as Arsenal’s ‘relief goal’ eluded them, leaving Arsenal fans nerves shredded once again, until finally the full time whistle came.
Three things that made me smile
1. Martin Odegaard’s purple patch continues – It’s just so nice to see our skipper reveling in these moments and playing with so much purpose and confidence, after such a disappointing campaign (from a personal point of view) last season. I don’t see how anyone can begrudge a player like Odegaard coming into form and really enjoying his football. When he plays like this he’s a gift to the game itself, let alone the boys in red and white, who are equally happy to see his confidence return.
2. Ezri Konsa – I struggle to identify one moment to use an example, but it just really made me smile to see how easy he seems to find the game of football. Seriously now, was he this good at Villa?!? I must admit I never watched loads of them while Konsa was there, but surely if he was this good we would have heard more about it!!! What a player he is turning out to be, what a signing, what a steal?! Didn’t think I’d be writing that when I first read of our interest in him. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I would have paid the full £60m Villa were asking for!!
3.Beautiful football has returned – those interchanges. Wow! Going a bit overboard here, but those little quick passes around the box are an absolute joy to watch. As much as I loved last season (at the end!), it was a grind at times and not always easy to watch, but this year, so far at least, it’s a completely different story. Arsenal are popping around with purpose, a bit of flair, a swagger and most importantly, with end product. Long may this continue!
Any concerns?
A couple. Wastefulness aside, Viktor Gyokeres really struggled to get into the game and when you think that we had a record number of shots in an away fixture (26 I think it was) and our star striker didn’t have any of them, something is definitely wrong. The touch seems to have gone backwards a bit, but we have seen this improve over last season, so I’ll put that down to rustiness. The one real concern is that he just doesn’t seem to fit into this team at all. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we brought on Kai Havertz and scored shortly afterwards. It’s a dilemma that Mikel is going to have to find a solution for, because Havertz can’t play all the games.
I thought Eze was peripheral as well. Not bad, just not involved. After his star turn at Villa Park a week or so ago, I thought this could be the start of something for Eze in this team, but this performance felt more like last season, where you find yourself wanting more from our clearly gifted £70m forward.
Final word
So the upshot of all of the above is that Arsenal get their Champions League campaign off to a great start, in a really tricky game in what was the only away win of the night in the competition. A superb all round performance, some dodgy finishing, with a handful of amazing performances and ultimately happy night for all us Gooners!
Up next, Sunderland away in what is sure to be a highly competitive game…let’s hope Arsenal can continue this rich vein of form up in the North East.
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