Arsenal were felled by West Ham United in the Premier League, with Mikel Arteta staring into the abyss as his tattered title charge hit another hitch that might just prove too much to overcome.
With first-place Liverpool dropping points in recent matches – ahead of meeting Manchester City this weekend – this was the perfect chance for the Gunners to springboard into the business stretch.
But Jarrod Bowen scored before the break and the anxiety was palpable. Arsenal simply don’t have the firepower right now, with their injury problems limiting them and consigning them to a first home defeat of the season in the league.
Arsenal lack bite – again
With basically the entirety of Arteta’s first-choice forward line sidelined through injury, Arteta has been forced into thinking outside the box over the past few games, with Mikel Merino deployed as a stopgap striker.
The 6 foot 2 midfielder was marshalled, with flankers Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri failing to inspire too.
In fact, left-back Riccardo Calafiori was the only host player to hit the target in the first half, underlining the issues that Arteta is currently dealing with from an attacking standpoint.
However, with the frontline so stripped of firepower, it was the perfect chance for Martin Odegaard, skipper, to step up. Unfortunately, he put in another uninspiring performance, with the nature of his current situation not all that different to that of Granit Xhaka before his resurgence.
Arsenal’s new version of Granit Xhaka
Arsenal emerged after the break knowing that they needed to respond after going a goal behind. However, they failed to muster the fluency nor incisiveness to turn the tide against a resilient Irons backline.
|
Martin Odegaard vs West Ham |
|
|---|---|
|
Match Stats |
# |
|
Minutes played |
90′ |
|
Goals |
0 |
|
Assists |
0 |
|
Shots (on target) |
3 (0) |
|
Touches |
89 |
|
Accurate passes |
60/70 (86%) |
|
Key passes |
4 |
|
Possession lost |
20x |
|
Dribbles |
0/1 |
|
Tackles + interceptions |
0 |
|
Clearances |
0 |
|
Ground duels |
2/6 |
|
Dribbled past |
1x |
|
Stats via Sofascore |
|
It put Odegaard under a glaring spotlight once again, with football.london’s Tom Canton raising the question, as fans have before, that the Norwegian midfielder had failed to do enough given that he donned the captain’s armband.
Branding him with a 4/10 match rating, the Arsenal correspondent wrote: ‘In these moments, this is where you need your captain to step up and sadly the Norwegian simply didn’t. Passing short a free-kick, the boos rang out in frustration of the lack of direct play.’
The boos made a sombre chorus at full-time, with Odegaard’s struggle issuing a flashback to the Xhaka’s days of struggle with the armband.
The Swiss midfielder completed a stunning turnaround after almost leaving north London after being jeered off the pitch by his own supporters during a match with Crystal Palace.
The circumstances around Odegaard are less acrimonious, but he’s still come under heavy flak, with content creator Rimedi singling out the 25-year-old’s passing on the day, saying that it was “not at the level” against West Ham.
However, it does reinforce the observation that Odegaard isn’t pulling enough weight, especially with Bukayo Saka and co still out injured. This was an opportunity for him to step up and prove his worth – and on this occasion, he failed.
Xhaka, of course, resurrected his Emirates career before bowing out in 2023, with 297 appearances and two FA Cups in the cabinet.
Odegaard is still an elite-level player, but he needs to do more, and hopefully follow in the positive light that Xhaka left in.