{"id":271691,"date":"2025-10-02T11:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271691\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T11:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:01:12","slug":"martin-keown-left-blown-away-by-magnificent-arsenal-star-in-a-new-role-against-olympiacos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/271691\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Keown left blown away by \u2018magnificent\u2019 Arsenal star in a new role against Olympiacos\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the star of the show in the Gunners\u2019 2-0 win over Olympiacos in the Champions League.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In place of Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard<\/a> returned to Mikel Arteta\u2019s starting eleven following his recent shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

And from the first whistle, it was clear that Odegaard was fighting for his starting spot in Arteta\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Click to subscribe to the podcast \"\"\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

Arteta admitted that Eze plays best in central positions<\/a> recently, meaning Odegaard\u2019s role is under threat.<\/p>\n

Ethan Nwaneri is also vying for the Arsenal<\/a> captain\u2019s number 10 spot, and there\u2019s now a fair bit of pressure on the Norwegian.<\/p>\n

And on evidence of Wednesday night, he\u2019s well-equipped to cope.<\/p>\n

Martin Keown enjoyed seeing Martin Odegaard play with freedom vs Olympiacos<\/p>\n

Watching the game for TNT Sports<\/a>, Arsenal legend Martin Keown<\/a> made an interesting comment about Odegaard\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

Usually, Arsenal\u2019s number 10, playing behind either Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres, is tasked with leading the press \u2013 a vital role under Arteta.<\/p>\n

However, Odegaard seemed to be playing with a lot of freedom against Olympiacos \u2013 he wasn\u2019t on the right hugging his winger, he was all over the pitch finding pockets.<\/p>\n

\"ArsenalPhoto by Vince Mignott\/DeFodi Images\/DeFodi via Getty Images<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: When Arsenal actually expect Piero Hincapie to return from his groin injury<\/a><\/p>\n

And when speaking after the match, Keown really enjoyed seeing Odegaard playing with a bit more freedom.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cHe didn\u2019t do the pressing he normally does, which gave him more time. I think it\u2019s a better set-up. He was quite magnificent, really making Arsenal tick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Odegaard has often sacrificed a lot of his creative talent in order to help the rest of the team in terms of their defensive structure.<\/p>\n

But if anything, this was a bit of a throwback Odegaard display \u2013 he was unleashed as an old-school maverick.<\/p>\n

Martin Odegaard already appears to have a connection with Viktor Gyokeres<\/p>\n

Thus far, owing to Odegaard\u2019s injury, Arsenal fans have not often seen their captain play alongside their new striker Gyokeres.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday\u2019s viewing, it seems as if the Scandinavian pair could form quite the connection on the pitch. <\/p>\n

Odegaard seemed to recognise Gyokeres\u2019 runs in behind quicker than others, and the Swede probably should have bagged a goal during the 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

But it was a promising night all round for Arsenal, and Arteta\u2019s squad definitely looks strong enough to compete on all fronts. <\/p>\n

Arsenal fans think Eze\u2019s arrival has awakened Odegaard<\/a>, and it\u2019s clear that having better competition in the squad will be very beneficial.<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s fixture list has been fairly forgiving thus far, but the games will soon come thick and fast throughout the months leading up to Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the star of the show in the Gunners\u2019 2-0 win over Olympiacos in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":271692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5407,6649,141011,58279,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-271691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-english-premier-league","10":"tag-martin-keown","11":"tag-martin-odegaard","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115304234077683173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}