Martin Ødegaard makes timely return to relieve Arsenal of their Saka dependency

After two months on the sidelines, Martin Ødegaard returned, and it could not have come at a better time for Arsenal, who are going through a challenging period.

Mikel Arteta’s men go into this weekend’s mouthwatering London derby showdown against Chelsea level on points, but on current form, they couldn’t be any different with momentum on the Blues side.

The Gunners are on a three-game winless streak, exposing an underlying issue that Ødegaard can potentially fix. In short, Arsenal have relied even more heavily on Saka lately because their other forwards are not in form.

Consequently, both player and team have suffered. Saka was recently absent due to injury and missed the 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth and the 1-0 home Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

Since returning, he’s been near ever-present in both Premier League and Champions League campaigns and surprisingly came off the bench for 28 minutes at Preston in the EFL Cup.

Across nine Premier League matches this season, the England international has bagged three goals and created seven more. Only Cole Palmer, Mohamed Salah (both 12) and Erling Haaland (11) have more goal involvements than him.

Perhaps no one has been more impacted by Ødegaard’s absence. In September, the influential Arsenal captain sustained his ankle injury in a nasty-looking incident while on international duty with Norway.

In last season’s Premier League, only Manchester City duo Mateo Kovacic and Rodri passed the ball to one another on more occasions than Ødegaard and Saka when looking at non-defender combinations. Thomas Partey is the player passing to Saka the most so far in 2024/25, albeit from deeper positions than Ødegaard would take up; furthermore, the quality of passes are not the same as Ødegaard would get the ball to Saka in dangerous areas.

Ødegaard missed Arsenal’s last seven Premier League outings, which has seen problems in attack illustrated. They have failed to score in three of their previous six matches and struggled to break teams down in open play, scoring just 13 goals in open play across ten league games this season.

At San Siro, they lacked ideas and resorted to crossing the ball all too much, putting in 46 crosses overall. Their total of 33 in open play was their second highest in their 248 matches under Arteta (excluding extra-time) after the 37 they attempted in the 3-2 comeback win over Bournemouth in March 2023, when they were piling forward against a low block until finally finding a winner in the 97th minute.

It was evident in Milan on Wednesday evening when the Gunners registered 46 crosses, with their 33 in open play the second highest in 248 matches under Arteta (excluding extra-time), after the 37 against Bournemouth in March 2023, when they completed a 3-2 comeback while facing a low block.

“They dominated and should have come away with at least a draw. Arsenal have earned the right around Europe, teams will sit back and they need someone like Ødegaard to put the ball through the eye of the needle,” Paul Merson told Sky Sports.

Merson couldn’t be more right, as since the start of last season in Premier League and Champions League matches, Arsenal have averaged 9.3 open-play crosses per game when Ødegaard has played, compared to 13.6 per game when he’s not. That’s an increase of 46.2% in crosses when the Norwegian isn’t around.

It should not be surprising, given that he is the one who gets on the ball between the lines in central areas, allowing the north Londoners to attack through the middle. Ødegaard averaged more touches in the zone just outside the opposition penalty area last season (5.3 per 90) than any other teammate to play at least 1,000 minutes.

Depending on a player as gifted as Saka isn’t a problem. It hasn’t caused too many issues over the past few seasons, in which Arteta has turned Arsenal into a genuine title contender. Still, their attacking output dramatically suffers from a lack of support from others. Hence, Ødegaard’s return could not have been timed better.