Odegaard named man of the match as Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0 in Community Shield
Martin Odegaard was named player of the match as Arsenal defeated Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday. His performance, capped by a third goal created with a dummy that left goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on the floor, was described as an early sign he might be returning to his best after a difficult 2025-26.
Arsenal won the Premier League last season, but Odegaard struggled with knee and shoulder problems that interrupted his campaign. He only started 16 times in the league and recorded one goal and seven assists, his lowest totals since joining the club permanently from Real Madrid in 2021-22. He had been viewed as a central figure in Mikel Arteta’s earlier rebuilding of the team, and his fitness this season has been a focus for supporters and staff.
On Sunday in Cardiff, Odegaard produced an all-action display that included the dummy to beat Donnarumma for Arsenal’s third goal. The goal was the finishing moment of a match in which he was prominent across the pitch as Arsenal completed a 3-0 victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield.
Of the Arsenal players who featured, Odegaard completed the most passes (55/58), the most dribbles (3/3) and won possession more times than any teammate (nine). He had not produced consistent form across 2025-26, and there were debates among former players about whether he should serve as captain, but Sunday’s statistics and influence addressed some of those concerns.
Arteta has strengthened his midfield this summer with the £75m signing of Bruno Guimaraes, and Mikel Merino has described Arsenal’s midfield options as "probably the best in football". Guimaraes impressed in his 45 minutes on the pitch and, in their first start together, Odegaard and Guimaraes appeared to combine effectively. "Sometimes you are just in the flow. You need to find that on the pitch," Odegaard said of his performance. "All of us were flowing pretty good out there. I will just try to keep that up and keep going."
Odegaard finished last season fit and then featured for Norway at the World Cup, starting five of their six games and registering four assists. He acknowledged the difficulties of the previous year: "Last year was really a big struggle with a lot of difficult moments. To miss so many games because of injury was really frustrating," Odegaard said on Sunday. "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. 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. 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."
Mikel Arteta said he expects a different version of Odegaard if the midfielder can remain fit for the season. "Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum," Arteta 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."
