"He was phenomenal": Arteta praises £30m Arsenal star after 8 recoveries vs Olympiacos
Arsenal picked up a 2-0 win over Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The Gunners dominated proceedings in the opening half, but scored a solitary goal.
Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring after Viktor Gyokeres’ effort hit the woodwork.
Olympiacos almost found the equaliser, but David Raya made a sublime save to preserve the lead.
The second half saw a much-improved performance from the Greek outfit at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal squandered multiple big chances, but Bukayo Saka eventually sealed the game with a stoppage-time goal.
Speaking after the 2-0 victory, Arteta was full of praise for Odegaard, who played a key pass in the lead-up to Martinelli’s goal.
The Norwegian created four key chances on the night, but also squandered two clear-cut opportunities in the space of seconds.
He was rewarded the man of the match after the game, and Arteta said that ‘he was phenomenal’ against the Greek champions.
He told Arsenal.com: “He’s got all the licence in the world to go forward, Martin, and to play with that freedom and to play with that level of threat especially, not only with the passes, but the way he was taking the ball, carrying the ball, making runs, and arriving in really dangerous areas.
“I think he put three people through today to score a goal, he should have scored a goal as well, so great to have him back, he played some very good minutes in Newcastle to help us to win the game, and I think today he was phenomenal.”
Aside from his assist, Odegaard had 88 touches against Olympiacos with 52 successful passes. He was brilliant with his quick distribution from deep and completed seven out of nine long balls.
He won five duels, induced three fouls from the opposition, and had eight ball recoveries. The £30 million signing looked back to his best after an injury-plagued start to the campaign.
Odegaard has been substituted early in his last two Premier League starts against Leeds United and Nottingham Forest at home. He picked up a shoulder injury in both of those games.
The club captain is poised to make the first XI against West Ham United on Saturday afternoon. He will be determined to redeem himself and will surely be eyeing more goal contributions.
Arsenal have surprisingly lost to the Hammers in their last two meetings at the Emirates. They have the opportunity to make amends with a win and temporarily climb to the top of the league table.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com & Fotmob.com
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