Odegaard named player-of-the-match as Arsenal beat Man City 3-0 in Community Shield
Martin Odegaard won the player-of-the-match award after Arsenal defeated Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday. The performance showed early signs that he might be returning to his best following a frustrating 2025-26.
Knee and shoulder problems curtailed Odegaard's 2025-26 season, limiting him to 16 Premier League starts and yields of one goal and seven assists, his lowest totals since joining permanently in 2021-22. Arsenal nevertheless secured the Premier League title last season while Odegaard struggled with form and availability.
On Sunday in Cardiff Odegaard produced an all-action display and finished it with a third goal in which his dummy left City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on the floor. The match was cited as an early indication that the playmaker who was central to Mikel Arteta's earlier rebuilding of the team may be regaining momentum.
Odegaard led Arsenal players in several statistical categories in the game, completing 55 of 58 passes, executing 3 of 3 dribbles and winning possession nine times. His showing addressed questions about his consistency and the debates among former players over whether he should be captain.
Arsenal have strengthened midfield ahead of the new campaign with the signing of Bruno Guimaraes for £75m, and Guimaraes impressed in his 45 minutes on the pitch against City. Mikel Merino described Arsenal's midfield options as "probably the best in football", a group that now includes Odegaard, Guimaraes, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Merino.
Odegaard and Guimaraes appeared to click straight away in their first start together. "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 said injuries made last season difficult but that he finished fit and then performed well for Norway at the World Cup, where he started five of Norway's six games and registered four assists. "Last year was really a big struggle with a lot of difficult moments. To miss so many games because of injury was really frustrating," he said. "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 club can keep him fit and available. "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."
