Martin Odegaard has long been a joy to watch – now he is reaching new levels of creativity

You can tell when some players are in their groove.

With Martin Odegaard, he starts to move across the turf with a more obvious bounce in his step.

The first time that bounce was seen clearly in an Arsenal shirt was at West Ham’s London Stadium in March 2021.

Mikel Arteta’s side were 3-0 down after little more than half an hour that Sunday afternoon, but Odegaard, then on loan from Real Madrid, provided a playmaking masterclass as the source of all three Arsenal goals to rescue a point.

Coincidentally, it was back in that same venue almost three years later, now a permanent Arsenal player and their captain, that he produced a record-breaking creative display during a 6-0 win at the weekend.

This post from Opta encapsulates just how effective Odegaard was.

Such numbers should not come as a complete surprise. Odegaard has had that bounce back in his step for months and it seemed like only a matter of time before the data backed up his increased attacking influence.

Arsenal were getting results in the opening months of this season, but some of their performances felt like hard work. That was until their skipper started dropping deeper from midfield to get involved in moves earlier on.

Signs of him finding his most effective form came in the games at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and away against Luton Town at the start of December, but it was his outside-of-the-boot pass in behind for Bukayo Saka against Brighton & Hove Albion a week before Christmas that really showed him at his best. That move should have ended in a goal, but Gabriel Martinelli lifted his shot over from Saka’s cutback.

Until that clump of games, the 25-year-old’s involvement in attacking moves was varied.

His shot-creating actions (defined as the two offensive actions directly leading to a shot, such as passes, take-ons and winning fouls) per game ranged from a high of nine away to Everton in September to lows of twos and threes. Since that 2-1 win over Wolves on December 2, he has consistently been involved in at least six shot-creating actions a game. He has been involved in 10 twice (at home to Brighton and at West Ham on Sunday) and registered a high of 15 in the 2-0 home loss to the latter.

“We have used Martin to accommodate the needs of the team, to make us better against certain behaviours and challenges that the opponents put for us,” Arteta said in December. “That’s a big quality of his.”

That use of Odegaard has benefited Arsenal because it means he can be heavily involved in almost all phases of their play in possession, similar to when he excelled in a triangle with Saka and Takehiro Tomiyasu in 2021-22 — his first full season at the club.

After 24 top-flight games this season, Odegaard is the first player in Europe’s top-five domestic leagues to reach 50 open-play chances created (51).

In the Premier League, he has the joint-second most total chances created (61), joint-third most big chances created (12), and is fourth for expected assists (6.2). He also ranks top in the league for passes into the penalty area (66) and through balls (22). He ranks second to Tottenham’s James Maddison, who has played seven fewer league games, for shot-creating actions per 90 (6.28).

Since kick-off in that 2-0 win over Brighton on December 17, he is first in the Premier League for open-play chances created (29), total chances created (33), big chances created (seven, alongside Brighton’s Pascal Gross) and expected assists (3.4).

Aside from the raw numbers and the specific matches already mentioned, there are obvious examples of good chances he has created that were not converted. They include misses by Kai Havertz and Jakub Kiwior against Liverpool and Leandro Trossard and Eddie Nketiah against Wolves.

These performances have come with an understanding that Odegaard has been due more assists than he has been getting. Has that appreciation for playmaking been felt by Arteta?

“Absolutely,” he said. “The influence he (Odegaard) has on our team every time we get to certain areas… The leadership skills he’s developing day in, day out and his attitude… I think he’s developing really well.

“You know a lot about the players now and what they do (because of readily available statistics). Probably much more than before. I think it’s a good source, but probably not the only source to judge a player.”

That is where the way Odegaard moves on the pitch ties everything together.

Back in August, it was pirouettes flooring Manchester City opponents that got people off their seats in the Community Shield at Wembley. As the season has progressed, it has been crafty backheels away from pressure, sharp changes of direction and his ball manipulation that have stood out.

GO DEEPER

Martin Odegaard: What you do and don’t see

In the summer, The Athletic spoke to performance coach Rayan Wilson about different types of dribblers and why some look more natural than others. Wilson is not an Arsenal supporter but said: “I like to watch Arsenal because over the years their players have been cute, tidy, and made the game look like a beautiful art.

“Saka will jink inside and out, looking for the defender to almost spin 360 degrees. Why? To knock them off balance and create an unstable base for him (Saka) to be in control and skip past them. Odegaard drops shoulders all the time. Why? He uses his head and shoulders as a tool to get somebody to anticipate where he’s going to go, so they commit, shift their centre of mass and body weight to one side, then he skips to the other.”

Odegaard is at his best when he is practising that art of misdirection.

It looks good watching it through a TV screen, but the speed of movement is even more breathtaking in the flesh.

A good example came against West Ham on Sunday as he received the ball in a condensed space, took three quick touches to provoke Emerson Palmieri’s reaction, and created space for himself before passing in behind for Saka.

It did not end in an assist, but this is what being an Arsenal midfielder should be about: creativity.

Odegaard eventually got his assists, as Trossard and Saka scored the fourth and fifth respectively, from his most creative areas of the pitch. He was in the central area just outside the box when he found Trossard in first-half stoppage time and flicked the ball into Saka’s path from the deeper right half-space just past the hour.

Those passes took his assist tally for this Premier League season to five. After starting the campaign with a bigger emphasis on scoring following his 15 top-flight goals in 2022-23, this return to playmaking has been very welcome. It is no coincidence Arsenal have looked more fluid throughout the winter months when Odegaard has been more involved across the pitch rather than having most of his key involvements being shots from just outside the box.

The Arsenal captain’s performances have merited assists for a while now and are one of the reasons they have scored 16 goals in winning four league games in a row and head into the latter stages of the season in such fine shape.

(Top photo: Ian Kington/IKImages/AFP via Getty Images)