There are ugly games in a season that you will not remember. Yet if you are serious about being champions you need to find a way to get over the line in those ugly games.
On the opening weekend of the campaign clearly not all players were at their best. Barely any service was given to Viktor Gyökeres, Manchester United’s new attackers at times bullied our defence, some of our defending was in certain moments desperate and our own manager admitted mistakes were made. It was a scrappy encounter that was not designed for flair players to produce many memorable moments.
Ødegaard Answers His Critics
For much of 2025 Martin Ødegaard has been criticised for going missing when Arsenal needed him. So it is only fair to point out when he steps up and shows bravery. That is what he did on Sunday.
This very week Tony Adams put more pressure on the Norwegian by claiming the Gunners will not lift the title unless they change their captain. When you are called Mr Arsenal, many supporters will listen, and it was the last thing our skipper needed after months of playing like someone still recovering from an ankle injury.
A section of the fanbase are concerned that a midfielder will not be signed to help take the creative pressure off the 26-year-old. Time will tell if he and Ethan Nwaneri are strong enough options to break down low blocks and win a league title. Yet Ødegaard’s willingness to do the ugly side of the game was vital in our victory at Old Trafford.
You could argue the amount of times he came back to win possession and calmly start a counter attack was not even his responsibility. The Theatre of Dreams was always going to have a more hostile atmosphere than our recent visits because it was the opening weekend. The likes of Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha gave the home fans hope, and there might even be the sense that United were unlucky not to get a result. Without Ødegaard’s contribution, that may well have been the case.
Gabriel looked flustered, William Saliba was rushed, Martin Zubimendi gave away fouls, and Gabriel Martinelli was overthinking his passes. Yet Ødegaard brought calmness and composure to proceedings.
Leadership When It Mattered
It was a scrappy, physical game that some might have assumed did not suit our number ten. Yet instead of going missing he showed character at a time when his personality has been in doubt. Even in the final minutes, when we were trying to wind down the clock, he took responsibility.
I have always questioned the choice of who wears the armband at the Emirates. By his own admission Ødegaard is not the most vocal. If your style of leadership is not to shout, then you need to lead by example on the pitch. That cannot just happen when things are going well.
If you win a Premier League title, no one looks back and talks about the narrow wins you had to fight and scrap for. Yet going away from home, not playing well but still finding a way to return with three points, is a skill set required to win major honours. Tony Adams will know that because he was part of numerous experiences.
Ødegaard of course needs to do this consistently, but you sense he needed this performance.
Your thoughts welcome in the comments.
Dan Smith
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I must have watched a different game Dan .
Thought he was atrocious once again ,that whole midfield looked out of sync (probably expected )massive gaping holes left open ,Utd had 22 shots compared to our 9 ,must tighten that up against better teams .
I will admit mate I seen in the minority
I just felt he came back and calmly won back the ball , took it for a walk , etc
Tbh I don’t think you can silence your critics in a game where you had zero goal involvements. He was the best of a dreadful midfield, but my doubts remain. Call me when he starts potting goals and assists ……vs big teams
I agree Odegaard had a couple of good moments but Manu successfully got the ball of him on numerous occasions which led to dangerous situations at our goal mouth. He is not strong physically to retain ball in Premier league and he doesn’t have the ability for to score goals which is needed for AM role.
I must have watched a different game also. I thought Odergaard was no different to any other outfield player. Disappointing.
Our defense would’ve been overly pressurized without Odegaard pressing relentlessly and dropping deep to get the ball, but his passes and decision-making in the final-third need to improve
Unfortunately, Arsenal would likely not sign Eze to compete with Odegaard, unless they can sell Trossard this week
@Gai I watched EZE play against Chelsea and he often come from the left-wing, I bet we need such player to rival Odegard.
Zubimendi has capacity imo with line breaking passes he is highly gifted technically. Odegard needs to really improve he was better two seasons ago.
I think we will look back on this win as a very good one. United seem like they are going to be a very good team and could make top four. It is a good thing we’ve faced them early before they gel properly and become a force.
I thought Odegaard was one of our better players along with Raya and Saliba. He worked hard off the ball and it’s quite telling that only Saliba made more clearances than the captain. This was a solid defensive performance and Odegaard was at the heart of it.
Offensively, he tried some things but they didn’t always come off. The front three of Martinelli, Gyokeres and Saka didn’t offer much movement but that can be attributed to United tactics as well as Arsenal still adjusting to new tactics.
Personally, I think Odegaard and Raya were our two best players. It’s easy to single players out, but at least Odegaard tried to get some control of the game.
I saw more of him on the few occasions we got forward than any of our other players..
Where were Saka and Rice?
Saka with one blocked shot (through ball from Odegaard) and a cross to Madueke late on.
Rice with a good corner delivery. Other than that they weren’t that special either.
The performance wasn’t great from any of the team…. But it was a win at Old Trafford on the first day of the season and I’ll take wins over performance every week.
Odegaard gave the team some extra energy in midfield.
He had like five amazing runs ,unfortunately he failed to pick a correct final pass.
He just needs better decision making in the final third and he may have a great season ahead.
I think part of it also has to do with the movement ahead of him. An attacking midfielder is only as good as the players ahead of him and the trio of Martinelli,Gyokeres & Saka didn’t help him.
agree completely with the article. Odegaard certainly led by example, getting into the thick of things and not shying away from tackles. The only thing I expect will improve with him is that he should release the ball earlier than he does so that our attack will be more lethal and Gyokeres can take full advantage and be at his best.
This seems to be the issue for many of our players where they stick to the ball until ManU is all over them. In many occasions, our development of attacks had good potentials, but our own indecisiveness killed them all. That is why I think our team seemed to be uncoordinated, maybe an issue of the first game or it is a tactical surprise from ManU’s defense tempo. We did not have the same issue though with Athletic though.
I do think we need to release the ball earlier to enable further development. But knowing our wingers were not at their best and Gyokeres did not won much of the aerial duals, this is surely a game to study.
I
Luckily it’s only the minority of fans that claim to have “football knowledge”, already complaining about Odegaard. For the majority of us normal fans, it was a solid display from him.
Like every other attacker on the day, not great with his final ball, but he was knitting everything together nicely, and working harder than anyone off the ball. That off the ball pressure from him and others is so vital in these types of games where we’re playing poorly, and don’t have a lot of the ball.
Like others, he’ll improve in the coming weeks, and it will take a while for everyone to adjust their play to suit Gyokeres.
You’d think a win and a clean sheet in your first game away at Utd would be fantastic, but it’s the usual suspects with their negativity already! Nothing changes I guess :).
Nice to see you back after a win Thirdman 👍
There’s always a conspiracy theorist!
What next, Elvis is still alive?
I agree ,Or Covid didnt exist ,some proper nut jobs around would t you say .
Are you on something? I never saw anyone say the virus didn’t exist.
It’s the response to it, that so many had an issue with, and those who questioned the whole response were proven correct.
So I am not sure what your point is? Lies are good – is that what you’re trying to say?
NORMAL!!!!!!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂
Ironic isnt it Reggie !😂
Says it all DK.
We won, 3 points on the board, congrats to the manager and the lads, this is a different Utd. as compared to last year, Cunha and Mbuemo are quality underrated players who will improve them.
Odegard was poor IMO, Tony Adams is a decorated player and his opinions matter, whether Mikel pays heed to them or not, it is Mikel’s prerogative, he will be judged at the end of the season.
The brilliance of Raya and the woodwork gave us an extra 2 points, much needed.
With Arteta’s tactics, any forward will fumble and fail, hope things change fast, City / Tots games will be more intense. Leeds should be the platform for Gyoks to open his account, a big win required to maintain the goal difference.
Palace need to be taken seriously, holding CFC goalless is no mean feat.
Was good to see Mikel making changes at the 60th minute, something he learnt over the summer.
I said it before we signed him and I will say it again now. Kai Havertz will be our number 1 striker by the end of the month. Gyokeres is a poor poor player. From his first touch to his passing ability he isnt good enough. I feel sorry for Arteta as it was clear he wanted Sesko. We looked miles better yesterday when Havertz actually made there cb challenge for Raya’s long kicks. Going to be a long season if we make no more signings as it will basically be the same team with Zumbendi instead of Partey.
Gyokeres is not poor. He was Europe’s top scorer last season for a reason
Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli and Rice needs to feed him
You saw Odegaard shooting instead of giving Gyokeres a simple pass which could have ended in the net
The guy will come good. I know most probably you are of the people who were against Kai Havertz, now you are praising him. We never learn
Yes he was top scorer in Europe, but you failed to mention it’s one of the poorest top leagues in Europe. 19 penalties as well. Could have should have would have didn’t. I also saw him knock the ball about 4 yards in front of him with a clunky first touch and miss every man and his dog with a very poor cross. Gyokeres is a poor footballer end of story. Lethal finisher yes but that doesn’t make him a good footballer. I always like Kai and his type of style suits our way of playing. Sesko, Osimhen and Isak would have been perfect but we went for the cheapest option as usual.
Don’t feel sorry for Arteta. He has it in him to ruin a good player if he doesn’t want him and keep playing a mediocre player who is in his good graces.
If we aint getting rid of Mikel then surely we sign players that actually fit his system though. We criticise Mikel for putting square pegs in round holes then give him a striker suited to counter attacking teams.
Dry😭
True talk Lucy 78, majority of fans won’t see odegaard has shit yesterday, if he and other shits like him stop loosing the ball easily then we won’t need much pressing. Honestly the midfield collapsed yesterday and our captain couldn’t do much and so other departments suffer too, our front 3 were close to useless, martinelli unsurprisingly most useless of them, madueke was lost when he came in and amad just keep embarrassing him. Maybe it’s the Lwing he’s(madueke) playing or maybe he just needs time or not good enough or its just a bad day at work or maybe it’s something else but what i know is we badly need a cool right footed Winger for the LW.
That said, my love and respect goes to our defenders and keeper, who gave us the sweet victory and who kept their cool when the midfielders and attackers were clumsy.
I hope to see better all around performance later on, hopefully this victory will lift our spirit coz to beat a newly rejuvenated man utd at Old Trafford on open day is a very big deal.
Lastly, kudos to rice aswell althoug he didnt have a good game either but his consistent dangerous delivery gave us the goal. He’s integral to the reason why we are formidable at corner kicks /deadballs
UP GuNNErs!
COYG🥰
I thought Odegaard was decent, in some areas more than others. I felt the team didn’t look match fit, esp Saka, he looked off the pace, most everyone did, so it’s a great three points. Now that I’m happy with these points, next I hope to see us move in the transfer market.
I think he was fine and played an important role in our clean sheet. Certainly not as bad as some people say he was
I do want to see the old Odergaard. I mean the creative attacking midfielder who was fantastic 2 seasons ago
Well for me apart from Raya my next best player on the pitch yesterday was Zubimendi. Odegaard had too many touches on the ball and that attributed to low or no service at all to Gyokeres. Yes agreed the whole team played badly but I have also seen situations where a team plays badly and still win with a margin of 2 or more goals. We had less of the ball possession yesterday and the little we had, we failed to capitalize on them to hurt united.
I think Ode is doing everything except from getting that final killer pass and goals. He is more hesitant about it as if there is a mental block/indecision about his ability to execute the pass and often resulting in a poor pass. They need to do something to restore his conviction in his passes. That said, it’s a bit concerning that besides Zubi, we don’t have too many players capable of threading a good through ball behind enemy lines for our forward players. An agent could have used that game as a power point presentation foe why we need to sign Eze. Teams are going to find the theater of dreams a formidable ground this season.
Raya was our best player by a mile, the rest were mediocre. We didn’t deserve to win but who cares, we got the 3 points we came for and the first PL game out of the way. Old Trafford is going to be a tough place to come to this season. I have Man U in the top 6 now they have Cunha and Mbueno who gave our defence a torrid time yesterday. Arteta will be delighted but we must take all three points against Leeds, some really tough games coming up.
Maybe it was another game I watched yesterday. Ordegard was atrocious yesterday it was beyond shocking. He did not know who to pass to when arsenal countered.. so unsure of himself. He has been very complacent for two seasons now simply because he doesn’t have a rival to the number 10 position. Sadly Spurs will beat us to eze signature( another infuriating situation).. arsenal should wake up and up the ante with this infuriating slow buildup play.. megaheles was a bag of nerves at the back too… Prepare for more HBp games this season
I would never fault Ødegaard’s effort but it’s the things he is in the team do that no one else can that he has stopped doing.
He showed flashes of the old version of himself but he was still coming far too deep, into the area of the pitch where Zubimendi is operating to collect the ball, meaning we are then short when it goes forward. As well hanging onto the ball for too long.
On a bad day he was one of our better players but honestly the whole game sucked from start to finish.
Odegaard is overrated. He is our playmaker why should we praise him for recoveries when he is failing in his main duties. We need him to create chances not just running around pressing but losing the ball unnecessarily when he is supposed to pass.
Arsenal didn’t play well yesterday. Utd were better than almost anyone thought they’d be. End of.
Apart from Raya – who had to play well, and did thank goodness – because others didn’t, I think nobody shone over the 90 minutes.
However, it is only the first game of the season not the 21st. Let’s see how things play out over the coming run of potentially very hard games that Arsenal has. Apart from anything else, this run will be a real, sustained, early challenge for Arteta, his tactics, and the (new look) team. As they say, when the going gets tough etc. We’ll find out just how tough Arsenal is.
Analysis of some of our players JA baffles me some times. It sound as if the writers are paid to do so. Unless, I watched a different match yesterday, Odegaard needs to up his game just to say the least. I couldn’t remember saw him complete a pass while we were in offensive. His indecision especially, on the final third made me hid my face in shame. It was truly absurd for such display to come from a captain of such a big club. Agreed, most of the players, if not all had a below average performance but to praise Odegaard to high heavens is laughable. He hasn’t pick up his lost form from last season.
I will rather suggest, we encourage him to stop too many touches and be decisive in the final third and add goal scoring to his game.
I don’t recall anyone praising his offensive contributions
A lot of anti-Odegaard stuff from the usual suspects who all seem typically baffled and confused. Arsenal won with what was a gritty performance, the kind that Arsenal weren’t known for just a few years ago. MU may not be a great team at the moment but they are going to damage some teams if they keep playing as they did.
This was a game that needed the running power of Rice but we didn’t get it. So we ended up having Odegaard having to do much of the midfield battling whilst at the same time also trying to be the creative linchpin of the team. I also agree with the author that some of Arsenal’s usually dependable players were rather sloppy and seemed slightly off the pace.
Also, whilst Odegaard wasn’t as good as he could have been during attacking phases of the game the runs being made ahead of him were subpar. The attackers were running too narrowly which left very little space to thread passes.
It was a good solid performance from Odegaard and he was arguably Arsenal’s best outfield player.
What game were you watching and what battling did Odegaard do. Is running battling? yes the team won but we can not hide behind the win for the poor performance. During the course of the season we are going to win some games ugly because the opposition will be playing good football but this United team is not even special. We have gone for decades with the EPL because of this blind praise of rubbish performances. Like it or not with Odegaard as captain we have achieved nothing. Were it not for Arteta’s favouritism we could have signed someone to dislodge him from the team. He has been a weak link in the team but still he has not competition signed to push him to perform better or to dislodge him from the first eleven.
This is the problem Simba,
I’ve said in previous posts that being Captain shouldn’t protect you from being dropped. But unfortunately in Odegaard’s case it does.
How else do you explain him keeping his place when he consistently underperformed last season. And with certain poster’s getting all gassed up with his supposed leading by example performance against United, it looks like his place is still guaranteed, no matter what.
Running is, of course, part of what is required to battle in a game of football. Or do you dispute that? He covered more ground than any other Arsenal player. Also, his defensive stats were amongst the best for any Arsenal player. How is this blind praise?
He had to do all this partly because the whole team was not functioning as expected and for this he is rightly being praised. What is also true is that he wasn’t as effective in attacking phases of the game as he should have been.
Some balance is required in these evaluations.
Or do you think we should all just blindly follow a negative narrative of a player just because you say so?
No David,
you don’t have to blindly follow a negative narrative of a player just because I say so.
But that also works in reverse, I don’t have to be positive all the time, and constantly put positive spins on things that clearly are not positive. Something you constantly try to do.
Odegaard was one of Arsenal’s best outfield players in the match against MU. Or do you dispute that? If so, it would be interesting to know what metrics you have used to judge his performance and who you think should have replaced him.
Nwaneri could have been given a go. The way people get gassed up about Odegaard is beyond funny. To me he’s nothing more than a good player.
And to just keep on picking him regardless just smacks of favoritism on the Managers part. Players should be picked on form, not because you are best buddies with the manager.
@Derek
It seems, at this very early stage anyway, that Nwaneri’s new contract doesn’t appear to have concessions to playing time (as some of our fellow contributors were getting fussed up about some weeks ago, prior to the signing).
You’re quite right, everyone should be picked on form – or not picked because of lack of it.
At this point in their respective careers Nwaneri is simply not at the same level. It’s quite straightforward if you can get beyond this rather odd negativity about Odegaard.
David,
You say that Nwaneri is not on Odegaard’s level. And just what level is Odegaard at exactly. 😂🤦♂️