Arsenal had a favorable start to this season's Champions League with a minimal victory at Napoli's Diego Armando Maradona stadium. Martin Odegaard's only goal in the second half did not fully reflect the pressure created by the defending runner-up.
The Gunners launched 26 shots, the ball went on target 9 times but only 1 goal. This is the "Gunners"' most shots in a Champions League match since the 2003-04 season. In one day, Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka and especially Noni Madueke were unlucky, in the end, Martin Odegaard decided.
Throughout last season, due to injury, the Norwegian midfielder only scored 1 goal. However, from the beginning of the 2026-27 season until now, after 5 matches, the Norwegian star has scored 4 goals.
Although this match was played at home, Napoli was still underestimated. Max Allegri's team laid out a 2-layer defense that sometimes put Arsenal's attacking stars in a deadlock. Except for the scoring situation, Odegaard also showed a more outstanding performance than all the remaining players of the two teams.
The most notable missed opportunity was Odegaard's light left-footed cross. The ball glided lightly through Napoli's defense like a leaf flying in the wind, that was a delicate and beautiful handling. The ball found Ben White's position waiting to head, unfortunately Piero Hincapie's shot deviated from the target immediately afterwards, making this moment incomplete.
The new season has just started for a few rounds, but it feels like Martin Odegaard has prepared for it very carefully, both physically and mentally. This is the image of the Norwegian midfielder in the 2022-23 season, the campaign Odegaard played best but Arsenal at that time just joined the championship race with Man City and Liverpool.
Witnessing his student play so sublimely, Mikel Arteta could not help but be happy. After the match, he gave Martin Odegaard compliments and hoped that this midfielder would continue to be the leader for Arsenal this season.
Besides Martin Odegaard's good performance, Arsenal's attack in this match finished too poorly, missing many unexpected situations. Before entering the Champions League this season, Arsenal parted ways with Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli. Two of these three strikers (Trossard and Martinelli) played very well in the Champions League last season, so the "Gunners"' attacking power has slightly decreased.
The change in the center forward position in the starting lineup, from Kai Havertz who is in high form to Viktor Gyokeres, has caused negative impacts. This is a proactive change by Mikel Arteta so that Gyokeres does not fall into a state of disappointment after Kai Havertz has played very well since the beginning of the season.
A match with many missed shots does not mean Arsenal's attack is poor, this can happen to any team. However, when setting a goal to win the Champions League, Arsenal needs to minimize matches like that. On the unluckiest day, they cannot let the team fall into a state of not being able to score even with diverse attacking directions.
