Martin Odegaard inspires Arsenal to reignite title hopes with 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest
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LONDON – Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team “flows in a different way” when Martin Odegaard is playing, after the Gunners crushed Nottingham Forest 3-0 on Nov 23 to end their winless run.
Arsenal, Premier League runners-up for the past two seasons, started the campaign strongly but their form dipped and they kicked off on Nov 23 nine points behind leaders Liverpool.
Victory at the Emirates lifts them to 22 points, level with third-placed Chelsea and one behind champions Manchester City, whose poor form continued with a surprise 4-0 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur in the late match.
Arsenal took the lead in the 15th minute when Saka exchanged passes with Odegaard on the edge of the area before lashing a left-footed shot into the roof of the net.
“I think that’s chemistry. You meet somebody and you make eye contact and something flows. It happens on the field and off the field. In football it’s very hard to say,” Arteta said of the duo, who proved too much for Forest to handle.
“I sensed a different energy 48 hours before the game. There was something different. What happened was we could train with 19 players instead of 12 or 13 for the first time in weeks.”
Captain Odegaard was making his first appearance at the Emirates since late August and showed what a huge miss he was for Arsenal during his two-month injury absence.
Time and again the Norwegian found space in the penalty area with his quick feet and he teed up Gabriel Jesus, who curled narrowly wide, before linking up with Saka again.
Partey doubled Arsenal’s lead early in the second half after collecting Saka’s pass 20 metres out and taking a touch, before curling his shot away from the dive of Matz Sels and inside the far post.
Seventeen-year-old Ethan Nwaneri tucked away Raheem Sterling’s cutback to wrap up an emphatic win in the 86th minute.
Speaking about Odegaard, who returned to action at Inter Milan earlier this month, Arteta told the BBC: “It’s not a coincidence. The team flows in a different way when he is playing.”
He later added: “We talk about fluidity, understanding, chemistry, timing, he’s one of the best to do that. To manage the tempo of the game, when to slow it down, when to control it. Obviously he’s been missed.”
And he also had warm words for Nwaneri.
“He is the second-youngest (Premier League goalscorer) in our history (behind only Cesc Fabregas),” Arteta said. “That’s a story in itself.
“He’s brave. You see the reaction of fans and they were singing ‘He’s one of our own’. I think we have to put brick by brick and make sure the cement doesn’t get dry. Hopefully we can build a beautiful thing with him.”
Arsenal’s Thomas Partey scores their second goal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Forest, meanwhile, have been the surprise package this season and occasionally looked a threat on the counter-attack but it was largely one-way traffic in the north London rain.
“We have to improve because we did a lot of bad things – especially with the defending. Losing is always very painful. We came up short,” Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo said. AFP, REUTERS
