Martin Odegaard’s 23 minutes of class bailed out Mikel Arteta

Sam DeanSun, May 10, 2026 at 8:33 PM UTC

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Martin Odegaard demonstrated his creative qualities as he set up Leandro Trossard for Arsenal’s winning goal - Ian Walton/AP

Martin Odegaard played only 23 minutes of this potentially title-defining trip to West Ham United, and he touched the ball only 14 times. This is a footballer who usually shapes matches over the course of 90 minutes, controlling the flow of games and drawing the patterns of play, but on this occasion those 14 touches were all he needed to make the difference.

Arsenal had run out of ideas by the time Odegaard arrived on the pitch midway through the second half. This was, in large part, their own fault. Mikel Arteta had changed the tone of the match in the first half by bizarrely shifting Declan Rice to right-back, and his players had lost their grip as a result. They were not threatening West Ham’s defence, creating chances or moving the ball with any purpose.

Arteta’s decision to turn to Odegaard, along with fellow attacking midfielder Kai Havertz, was the moment he reversed the mistake he made in the first half. Martín Zubimendi, a 28th-minute substitute for the injured Ben White, was removed from the pitch and the keys to the Arsenal attack were once again handed to Odegaard, the club captain.

Mikel Arteta embraces Odegaard at the full-time whistle - Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

A combination of fitness issues and the signing of Eberechi Eze have made this a challenging individual season for Odegaard but he remains, without any doubt, Arsenal’s creator-in-chief. No player in Arteta’s squad can match the Norwegian when it comes to invention, vision and an ability to conjure goalscoring opportunities.

After 81 minutes, Odegaard zipped an incisive through-ball beyond the West Ham defence and into the path of Noni Madueke. After 82 minutes, he produced an even more delicious pass to Havertz, inside the West Ham penalty area.

And then, after 83 minutes, it was Odegaard who weaved into the box, exchanged passes with Declan Rice and set up Leandro Trossard for the winning goal. The tiny delay of the pass to Trossard, with Odegaard nudging the ball gently until the gap had opened up, was vital. “I saw him and I heard him shouting for it, but I needed to get a better angle,” he explained afterwards.

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Three moments of class within three minutes, to give Arsenal the three points. This was leadership as Odegaard knows it, driving the team forward and making things happen on the pitch. He is not a screamer or a shouter but screaming and shouting would not have taken Arsenal to victory here. Technical quality was required and, when Odegaard had the ball at his feet in those crucial moments, technical quality was delivered.

“It got very scrappy and there was not a lot of quality in the game,” said former Arsenal striker Ian Wright on Sky Sports. “If we are going to be totally honest, the real quality and composure was Odegaard coming on. The pass to Trossard is the kind of quality you need in that moment.”

Arteta will no doubt use the next few days to analyse how and why his first substitution went so badly wrong. When White went down with an injury, it seemed the obvious replacement would be back-up right-back Cristhian Mosquera. Instead, Arteta brought Zubimendi into midfield and shifted Rice into that defensive position.

Arsenal lost their early rhythm after Declan Rice was shifted to right-back - Getty Images/Alex Pantling

Before White’s injury after 28 minutes, Arsenal had taken nine shots to West Ham’s zero. Between the substitution and half-time, though, they took just one more shot and conceded two. Arsenal went from being the dominant force to becoming a vulnerable, uncertain team.

Only when Odegaard came on did the game revert to its original state. “It was about getting that calmness on the ball and trying to make something happen,” Odegaard said. “It was about finding that moment and we did it in the end. I thought we were struggling a little bit to generate something. I just tried to get on the ball, take it forward. I wanted to come on and make the difference.”

History will remember this match mostly for the VAR controversy at the end, especially if Arsenal do go on to win the Premier League in the coming weeks. But Odegaard’s influence on this pivotal day should not be underestimated or underplayed. A captain’s performance, off the bench, when his team needed it most.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”