‘A shadow’: £240k-a-week Arsenal star said to have ‘struggled’ in Chelsea draw

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The British press are agreed that Arsenal club captain Martin Odegaard was unimpressive against Chelsea. 

As a team, the Gunners underperformed at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening. 

David Raya had a nightmare between the sticks, Oleksandr Zinchenko was uncharacteristically sloppy in possession, and Martin Odegaard was way short of his brilliant best.

The Norwegian midfielder is a talismanic figure for the north London club. He is the technical leader of Mikel Arteta’s side, and is capable of producing magical moments.

So far this season already, the 24-year-old has contributed four goals and one assist. 

He could not muster up such an impact against Chelsea, though. As per WhoScored statistics, the £240,000-a-week star didn’t take any shots, failed to complete a single dribble, and was only accurate with 80% of his passes.

Arsenal improved when Arteta opted to take Odegaard off the pitch, with Kai Havertz entering the fray against his former club in his place in the 78th minute.

After the match, several media outlets shared their verdict on Odegaard’s display.

What the press made of Martin Odegaard

According to The Standard, it was “difficult to remember a game when he struggled this much. Was off the pace and could not get into the match.”

GOAL said, Odegaard “gave possession away more often than we are used to seeing, including when he couldn’t control White’s pass and Chelsea broke to score their second. A shadow of his usual self.”

Whilst Kaya Kaynak, writing for Football.London, called it “a bad day at the office for the Norwegian who struggled to ever really got on the ball. On the rare occasions that he did there was a distinct lack of quality.”

Arteta will be hoping that Odegaard can bounce back quickly. It is vital for the club that the 55-cap Norway international can be at his best as much as possible this season. He is a potential game-changer and too good for the Gunners to be able to cope with him being off the boil for an extended period.

One silver lining of Odegaard’s outing against Chelsea was that it showed that Havertz could thrive in his position if required. Featuring on the right-hand side of the Arsenal central midfield pairing for the first time, the German linked well with Bukayo Saka and dominated his individual duels.