Arsenal seemed to have paid a heavy price for the missed opportunities. The "Gunners" created a series of dangerous situations but could not convert them into goals, until Martin Odegaard spoke up at the decisive moment.
The Gunners entered the game proactively and continuously tried to exploit spaces in Napoli's defense system. Right before halftime, Odegaard's delicate pass put Bukayo Saka in a favorable position, but the English player shot over the crossbar. Saka was then called offside, although slow-motion images showed this situation was quite close.
Right at the beginning of the second half, Odegaard continued to create opportunities with a high pass past Napoli's defense. Ben White received the ball and then made a cross inside, but Piero Hincapie could not take advantage when he sent the ball over the bar.
Mikel Arteta was still quite calm when witnessing his players continuously putting pressure, but impatience began to appear when the goal never came. And then Odegaard solved everything.
In the 75th minute, a combination between Bruno Guimaraes, Christos Tzolis and Ben White opened a gap in front of Napoli's penalty area. The ball found Odegaard's feet and the Arsenal captain launched a decisive shot from outside the penalty area.
That was a perfect finish, completely opposite to the waste of his teammates for most of the time before that.
The goal against Napoli continues to extend Odegaard's impressive start. After only scoring 1 goal last season due to injury and decline in form, the Norwegian midfielder has 4 goals in 5 matches this season.
Arteta believes that the most important thing is that Odegaard must maintain good physical condition. When no longer hindered by injury problems, the Arsenal captain can take on more roles in attack and often appear in dangerous positions.
First of all, he needs to maintain good physical condition to be able to play regularly. Last season, he missed many matches due to injury. Now, he has regained his form and has a better connection with his teammates. That brings many benefits to him" - Arteta said.
Arsenal actually had a superior performance at Naples. They controlled 58% of the ball possession, launched 26 shots and created an expected goal index of 4.05. This is Arsenal's highest number of shots in a Champions League match since this statistic was recorded in 2003.
But those numbers also expose the biggest problem of the "Gunners": the ability to take advantage of opportunities.
Viktor Gyokeres only had 9 touches in 73 minutes and did not take a shot. Kai Havertz came on in the last 17 minutes, had 13 touches and once put the ball into Napoli's net, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
This is also the reason Arsenal is paying more attention to the attack in the summer transfer window. Gyokeres has not created the expected influence, while Havertz is still the choice trusted by Arteta for the center forward position.
With the way we entered the game, controlled the match and created dominance, along with the quality and number of chances we had, Arsenal should have won with a bigger gap" - Arteta commented.
The 1-0 victory does not accurately reflect the game at Naples, but Arsenal can be satisfied with what they have shown. They created enough opportunities to win with a larger gap, while also showing that they are still one of the top candidates for the Champions League title.
