Yahoo Sports Martin Odegaard savours ‘unbelievable’ Arsenal return in Chelsea draw
Martin Odegaard was understandably delighted to be starting again for Arsenal, but was less happy about the final result against Chelsea.
The Norwegian midfielder had been out of action since September after sustaining an injury while on international duty three months ago.
The 25-year-old came off the bench against Inter Milan on Wednesday for his first appearance for the Gunners since the end of August.
Mikel Arteta named Odegaard in his starting lineup for the first time since recovering to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and he showed everyone exactly what the side were missing in his absence.
The skipper provided a lovely pass to Gabriel Martinelli for the opener, registering his eighth assist from open play in the Premier League in 2024. Only Cole Palmer (11) and Mo Salah (9) have recorded more this calendar year.
Pedro Neto found an equaliser with a brilliant strike soon after, though, to deny the visitors victory and ensure they fall further behind in the race for the title.
Odegaard admitted afterwards that he wasn’t expecting to play the entire game having trained so little this week.
“Unbelievable… back doing what I love,” he told Sky Sports. “It has been a long time, the longest I have been out of football in my whole life. It felt good to be back out there although disappointed we didn’t get the win.
“We’ve done a lot of work with the fitness coaches and physios pushing me every day. I wanted to come back as soon as possible. I felt okay today. I didn’t expect it [to play 90 minutes]. I’ve only done three training sessions with the team or something.
“It is a long season, long way to go. We had a tough period in December last season and came back. We know the quality and mentality we have and we just have to keep going.”
Arteta believes Odegaard’s ability to impact the game given the circumstances is a marker of the player’s quality.
“Our player has been out for six weeks and barely trained with the team,” he told Sky Sports. “To be able to play at this level in the Premier League tells you how much he looks after himself and the leadership and character he has.
“Everything flows better with players like this. Today we clicked much better. You could see everything was flowing but again it is about winning.”
Arsenal have been dogged by injury problems this season, but Arteta praised his side’s perseverance through a turbulent period.
“What we have found is that every day we have had to change something big, you know, the engine, the wheels, steering wheel because we’ve had problem after problem,” he said. “Normally the team goes down but this team has unbelievable energy and spirit to play.”
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