Title run-ins are nervy, very very nervy. Arsenal fans found that out last season when an April collapse ruined any hopes they had of securing a Premier League title.
Yet, when that run-in includes a visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as it does this weekend, the nerve levels ramp up another notch.
Today’s clash is huge, let’s make no mistake about it. The Gunners are currently top of the table but Manchester City have a game in hand. Mikel Arteta’s men simply have to keep winning and anything other than a victory against their old rivals on Sunday afternoon would be disastrous.
So, how can Arteta engineer a victory? He’ll certainly be relying on Martin Odegaard to set the tone.
Why Martin Odegaard is so important
The Norwegian began this current campaign in a slow fashion. Without Granit Xhaka, the back end of 2023 proved to be somewhat of a struggle for the club captain. Odegaard posted just four goals and three assists in league action.
However, since the turn of the year, he and Arsenal have taken their game up a level. The midfielder has five goals and seven assists to his name in 2024 league action, only proving that point.
He saved perhaps his best game of the season to date for Chelsea a few days ago. We know Mauricio Pochettino’s men haven’t been great this season but they were torn apart by a rampant Gunners side who were banishing any tiredness and mental fog from their brain after defeats to Aston Villa and Bayern Munich.
Odegaard was at the forefront of that victory, supplying two assists – one of which was a beautiful assist in behind for Kai Havertz’s first goal.
It was a “Kevin De Bruyne-style ripper of an assist”, as the Telegraph’s Sam Dean put it, with others quick to suggest he was “out of this world”. That’s not bad praise, is it?
So, what was different at the Emirates during that game? Well, for the first time in 2024, we saw a midfield of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Odegaard.
Why Partey must now start regularly
We have not seen much of the former Atletico Madrid star this season, notably because of injury.
Indeed, Partey has missed 26 matches because of groin and hamstring injuries, leaving Arteta without one of his most trusted midfielders.
To lose Xhaka was already a blow but to lose another third of the midfield from their 2022/23 title challenge was tough to swallow.
Alas, Arteta’s midfield is now complete again. The Ghanaian has only had fleeting cameo appearances from the bench in recent weeks – and truth be told hasn’t impressed much – but this was a timely reminder of what he brings to the team after being selected to start again.
At one point he sold Moises Caicedo back to Brighton with a wonderful dummy in the centre of the pitch, before going on to complete 86% of his passes, win 100% of his aerial duels and make three interceptions.
Handed an 8/10 match rating by GOAL’s Matt O’Connor-Simpson, the reporter noted that he was ‘excellent on just his fourth Premier League start of the season’.
Further hailed as “extraordinary” by Arsenal content creator Rohan Jivan, the £200k-per-week earner has cemented himself as a key cog in the team once again.
As one Gunners insider noted at full-time, Partey’s “passing takes Arsenal’s fluidity to another level” and also “allows Odegaard to stay further up the pitch and focus on creation.”
So, if Arteta wants to keep his skipper’s performance levels at the same level we saw against Chelsea, Partey simply has to start in the north London derby.
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