Martin Odegaard Shines in Arsenal's Community Shield Victory

Martin Odegaard walked off in Cardiff with the trophy in one hand and the match ball metaphorically in the other. Arsenal had just torn through Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield, and their captain looked like the player Mikel Arteta thought he was building his team around two years ago.

Last season, Arsenal finally climbed the mountain and won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. Odegaard watched too much of it from the sidelines. Knee and shoulder problems chopped his campaign into frustrating fragments. He started only 16 league games. One goal. Seven assists. For a player of his standards, those were jarring numbers – his lowest return since joining permanently from Real Madrid in 2021-22.

On Sunday, that version of Odegaard felt a long way away.

Odegaard back on the front foot

This was the full package. The pressing, the passing, the glide between the lines – and then the finish that killed City off.

His third goal was pure theatre. A feint that sent Gianluigi Donnarumma sliding helplessly across his goal, the Norwegian calmly rolling the ball into an empty net. It was the sort of moment that makes a stadium pause for half a second before the noise hits.

The statistics only underlined what everyone in the ground could see. Of all Arsenal players on the pitch, Odegaard completed the most passes (55 out of 58), the most dribbles (three out of three) and won possession more than anyone else in red (nine times). He dictated the tempo, then ripped it up when the game needed speeding.

This is the version of Odegaard that helped ignite Arteta’s Arsenal in the first place. The one who knits attacks, sets the press, and carries the armband with authority rather than doubt.

Those doubts were real last season. His form dipped, his availability vanished for long stretches, and former players openly questioned whether he should be captain. Against City, he started to silence that noise.

A new midfield arms race

The context makes his performance even more intriguing. Arteta hasn’t stood still after winning the league. He’s gone out and dropped £75m on Bruno Guimaraes, adding another heavyweight to a midfield that was already crowded.

Inside the dressing room, the confidence is obvious. Mikel Merino has called Arsenal’s midfield options “probably the best in football” – a bold claim, but look at the names and it doesn’t feel outlandish.

• Odegaard.
• Guimaraes, who impressed in his 45 minutes on Sunday.
• Myles Lewis-Skelly.
• Martin Zubimendi.
• Declan Rice.
• Eberechi Eze.
• Merino himself.

That is depth, variety, and serious competition for minutes.

Maybe that’s exactly what Odegaard needed.

His quality has never been in question. His consistency, at least last season, was. Now he faces a fight just to keep his place as the undisputed hub of the team. On this evidence, he’s not planning on stepping aside.

Odegaard and Guimaraes looked like they had been sharing a midfield for years, not 45 minutes. They found each other early, played around City’s press, and shifted the ball with a confidence that suggested this could become Arsenal’s new axis.

From struggle to statement

Odegaard hasn’t hidden from how hard last year was.

“Last year was really a big struggle with a lot of difficult moments. To miss so many games because of injury was really frustrating,” he said after the game. “It is the worst thing for a footballer to not be able to be on the pitch and I had quite a lot of weird injuries, and bad luck.”

He needed a reset. He got it.

He finished the season fit, lifted the Premier League title, then carried that momentum into a standout World Cup with Norway, starting five of their six games and supplying four assists. The rhythm returned. So did the belief.

“It was good for me to end the season with a title, here, and then a good World Cup. Then I had my break and I feel good, ready to go again,” he said. “What I have just worked on is to use that as motivation for this year and to come back stronger. And to use all of those experiences in a positive way.”

You could see that mindset in Cardiff. There was no easing himself back in, no sign of a player still worrying about his body. He played with freedom, but also with an edge.

“Sometimes you are just in the flow. You need to find that on the pitch,” he added. “All of us were flowing pretty good out there. I will just try to keep that up and keep going.”

Arteta’s ‘different Martin’

Arteta has been waiting for this version of his captain.

“Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum,” the Arsenal manager said. “So I'm sure this year if we can maintain him fit, available with the players around him, we're going to see a very different Martin.

“And I sense from the first day that he joined [pre-season training] that he has something else on the belly that he wants to prove and show, because the team needs it as well.”

That hunger changes everything. Arsenal already know they can win the league without Odegaard at full tilt. The idea of doing it with him back at his peak – and flanked by Guimaraes, Rice and the rest – shifts the ceiling.

The Community Shield is not a trophy that defines a season. But it can send a message.

On Sunday in Cardiff, Arsenal’s captain delivered one: he looks fit, he looks sharp, and he looks like he wants his team back in his image. If he stays on the pitch, will Martin Odegaard feel less like a returning player and more like the most expensive “new signing” Arsenal never had to make?