As Christos Tzolis cut in from the left flank and drove towards the penalty area, Kai Havertz could see history repeating itself.
Tzolis had done just the same on his competitive debut for Arsenal against Manchester City in the Community Shield a few weeks earlier, running at his opposition full-back, cutting inside and driving at goal, before fizzing a ball towards the penalty spot.
Martin Ødegaard was the grateful recipient, arriving just behind Havertz to take the ball smoothly into his path. He then faked a shot to send Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way before passing into the empty net.
With the scores level early in the second half of Arsenal’s win against Chelsea on Sunday, Tzolis did something very similar.
This time, his pass was intended for Havertz, but it was played ever so slightly behind the German. But Havertz had watched this before. He knew that Ødegaard, upon seeing Tzolis cut in, would have tiptoed into the penalty area.
Havertz produced a moment of genius to turn Tzolis’s slightly misplaced pass into a perfect assist, lifting his foot over the ball to leave it for his captain. Ødegaard again took the ball under his control with one touch, before this time lifting it over Emiliano Martínez to put Arsenal into a lead they would not surrender.
Ødegaard getting into more advanced positions has been an early theme of this season. He has three goals in four appearances, after scoring once in 36 outings last season.
There has clearly been an effort from Mikel Arteta and his staff to get their fit-again midfielder into attacking areas more consistently. In Premier League games this season, Ødegaard is making 3.2 high-intensity runs per 90 minutes into the opposition’s box while Arsenal have possession, up from 1.4 per 90 last term.
It’s only a small sample size from this season, but the fact that his numbers have more than doubled makes it significant nonetheless. And most important, his goal threat has clearly skyrocketed.
Similarly, he has made seven off-ball runs to make himself a cross option for a teammate in three Premier League games, almost matching his tally from last season (10). On a per-90 basis, that’s 0.65 to 2.8, or more than a fourfold increase. One of those runs led to his goal in the season opener against Coventry.
After an injury-disrupted couple of years, it appears the far-from-linear rise of the 27-year-old has taken a steep, upward turn for the better. And, for an Arsenal team looking imperious this season, that is a very positive sign.
Their captain played his part in their 2025-26 title triumph, but he probably feels more driven than most at the club to repeat the trick. He missed a big chunk of the season with a series of recurring knee injuries, and when he was available he was used sparingly.
He played 1,371 of a possible 3,420 minutes in the league – a scratch over 40.0% – and although he was available for the run-in, playing in key games and in Arsenal’s run to the Champions League final, he was a long way from the key man he has been since his permanent move to the club in the summer of 2021.
Back then Arsenal were signing a hugely talented No 10, but Ødegaard has developed into more of a No 8, a rounded midfielder who drops deep to get on the ball in front of the opposition’s midfield and moves it around the pitch.
The evidence this season suggests that we should expect to see him getting closer to Havertz more often (while also continuing to do the job of a No 8). Havertz isn’t the most reliable goalscorer, but he is an excellent and intelligent centre-forward who performs more of a false 9 role, and he needs more runners ahead of him than Viktor Gyökeres.
It appears this season that Arteta is going to prefer using Havertz up front, which will increase the need for Ødegaard to score more consistently. After the Norwegian’s start, he should at the very least challenge his season-best 15 goals in all competitions from 2022-23. He is averaging 5.6 high-intensity runs ahead of the ball per 90 this season, up from 3.9 last term.
He seems to have benefited from this summer’s World Cup, where he played a key role in his team’s run to the quarter-finals. Only Michael Olise (seven) got more assists at the tournament than Ødegaard (four).
There is pressure on him at club level, though. Eberechi Eze is breathing down his neck after standing in for him for large swathes of last season, though Arteta clearly prefers Ødegaard in the middle, perhaps for his defensive work, positioning and ability to coach Arsenal’s press on the pitch.
But there is just as much pressure on him to stay fit. He started 32, 37 and 35 of a possible 38 Premier League games in his first three full seasons, but has managed 26 then 16 in the past two.
He needs to prove he can stay fit, because not only are Arsenal better with him, but he is more likely to maintain his best form that way.
Ødegaard is showing his best in the early part of 2026-27. He is, along with Chelsea’s Morgan Rogers, one of only two players with at least 1.0 expected goals and 1.0 expected assists in the Premier League, highlighting his all-round attacking game.
Only seven players have played a role in more open-play shot-ending sequences than him (20), and he leads the Premier League for the number of such sequences where he took the shot and was involved in the buildup (four).
It helps that Arsenal look a very functional team, and have benefited from limited changes in personnel over the summer. But how much is that functionality a cause of Ødegaard’s form and how much is it a result? During his time at the club Arsenal have mounted sustained challenges for the Premier League title, and that is surely no coincidence.
Ødegaard is looking back to his best and then some, and that is ominous news for the rest of the Premier League.
This is an article by Opta Analyst
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