Why Odegaard hasn't started any of Arsenal's last three games
Stefan Bienkowski
- 30 Oct 2021 12:20 BST
- 7 min read
Martin Odegaard’s start to the Premier League season with Arsenal hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
Signed in the summer from Real Madrid for £31.5 million, the Norwegian midfielder was supposed to arrive at the London club as Arsenal’s new playmaker-in-chief.
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However, that hasn’t exactly happened and instead Odegaard has managed just one goal and one assist in his first eight games of the season.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the creative midfielder found himself starting on the bench for Arsenal’s clash with Leicester City for the third, consecutive game as Mikel Arteta has turned to other midfielders in a better run of form.
Why has Odegaard been dropped?
The reason for Odegaard’s struggles at Arsenal this season are down to his own personal form and a tactical shift made by Arteta during the season.
Alongside his own struggle for goals and assists, Odegaard has looked rather poor in comparison to fellow playmaker Emile Smith Rowe, who has taken the Norwegian’s place in Arteta’s side and looked far better for it, with three goals and two assists in 11 appearances this season.
Similarly, Arteta has found better performances from his side when he switched to a more traditional 4-4-2, with striker Alexandre Lacazette moving into a deeper role that has seen him play as a No.10 - a role that Odegaard would have surely liked to play himself.
As such, the former Madrid talent will have to prove that he’s not only better than some of the playmakers in Arteta’s squad but that he’s also capable of fitting into Arteta’s new-look tactics and becoming a crucial member of Arsenal’s team going forward.
If he can’t, Odegaard may find himself back in a similar situation to the one he was in at Madrid, when he struggled to pick up game time and was forced to resort to loan deals to smaller clubs.
