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Martin Ødegaard may be the big-game player Mikel Arteta needs at Arsenal

Arsenal may be embracing the new but they have, at least, signed someone with form in bending a north London derby to his will. In March they were undeservedly losing to Érik Lamela’s mindboggling rabona at the Emirates Stadium when, as half-time neared and predictable neuroses hovered, Martin Ødegaard swept in a left-footed equaliser from 14 yards.

It was not the cleanest of finishes but nobody cared: Arsenal had been let down that morning when the captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, reported late, but their 22-year-old loanee had pointed the way instead.

A temporary stay for the midfielder was never Arsenal’s plan. They waited for confirmation that he would be of little interest to Real Madrid this season and the satisfaction was palpable when they got their man in August. The upsides were clear: for £34m Arsenal had signed a player with a decade of top-level football ahead who, for one so young, carried himself with preternatural maturity.

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Ødegaard was, like so many others, chewed up and tossed around at Real Madrid after moving to the Bernabéu aged 16; the character that has emerged on the other side is one that, like Arsenal, feels ready to take careful steps back into the light.

“I think he can decide football matches, and big football matches, and he did that last year,” Mikel Arteta said this week. Ødegaard settled a game of reasonable importance as recently as last Saturday, beating Nick Pope with an exquisite free-kick against Burnley, and the expectation is that it becomes a regular theme. Arteta made the point that consistency is what turns a youngster into a gamechanger and, almost in the same breath, described Ødegaard as “a very consistent player”.

While Arsenal have spent heavily on a fresh selection of future bets, the Norway captain is an obvious candidate to bridge the gap between promise and delivery. Although his manager laughed off the idea, Ødegaard operates with a clarity and seriousness that recall Arteta’s playing days. His output will popularly be measured by those moments of brilliance in the final third but he raises Arsenal’s level in other ways.

“Taking the ball in moments where others probably refuse to, but as well with his attitude, his rhythm and the way he presses and puts people under pressure,” Arteta explained when asked about the ways Ødegaard leads by example.

The last part of his sentence is critical. Arsenal had pressed vigorously at times early in the Arteta era but, last autumn, those figures dropped off a cliff. By the end of October only two of their Premier League rivals were pressing less assertively: it went a long way towards explaining a disastrous run of results and a passive, listless brand of football. Ødegaard’s arrival in January was far from the only reason for their post-Christmas uptick, but the speed with which he plugged into Arteta’s requirements was notable.

Ødegaard celebrates scoring the equaliser against Tottenham last March in a game Arsenal went on to win 2-1.
Ødegaard celebrates scoring the equaliser against Tottenham last March in a game Arsenal went on to win 2-1. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Reuters

In those four and a half months, Ødegaard was Arsenal’s most assertive presser by a distance, averaging 49.9 pressures on opposition players per 90 minutes according to Opta data. Emile Smith Rowe, whose vigour was rightly regarded as another reason for their emergence from the nether reaches, came a distant second with 41.8. In three starts since joining permanently, Ødegaard has again led the way: this season he has 50.2 pressures per match and, to put that into context, only five players in the division have a higher average.

He is providing some of the energy Arsenal have missed and perhaps it is rubbing off on others. Arteta was invited to wax lyrical about Ødegaard’s off-the-ball contribution to the often scrappy win at Turf Moor and, while admitting the playmaker is “probably the first to do it”, he reserved his warmest praise for the work carried out by Aubameyang. “It was a real commitment and purpose because you can tell when you are really doing it or when you’ve been told to do it,” Arteta said. The captain, 32, looked jaded for periods of 2020-21 but perhaps the tone set by his younger peers will prove a revitalising influence.

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Now Arsenal hope the more visible metrics keep stacking up too. If there was a criticism of Ødegaard’s performances on loan it was that he should have scored more goals beyond the leveller against Spurs and a Europa League strike at Olympiakos, particularly as he has a knack of placing himself adroitly for cutbacks from wide. Assists should also arrive more frequently than the two he has managed so far as Arsenal’s new blend develops. Even when the decisive flourish has not been his, though, Ødegaard has tended to pass the eye test. A week after his derby-day goal, Arsenal went 3-0 down at West Ham and would have sunk without trace had he not produced a remarkable, insistent display that pulled them up by their bootstraps for a point.

That is what Arsenal need from their new generation: footballers who come to improve those around them. Arteta cautioned that Ødegaard “has got a big gap to develop many parts of his game” but when Tottenham return on Sunday he will carry an aura Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale and Albert Sambi Lokonga have not yet developed. One of Spurs’ modern-day heroes set an attainable standard: when a 21-year-old Christian Eriksen arrived in north London he had, like Ødegaard, more than 150 senior games behind him and became indispensable immediately. Perhaps Ødegaard can set himself fair for a similar long-term influence.

“One part is the emotional part, what is at stake and what you have to try to do to win,” Arteta said of the way players must prepare for a derby, which holds particular significance this time as his revamped squad hunt a benchmark victory. “Then it is individual quality and how you are able to have the right presence in that game to develop and do what you need to do.” The hope for Arsenal is that Ødegaard will answer the call to arms once again.