Martin Odegaard after the victory over West Ham. (Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)
For 95 seconds, Martin Odegaard reverted to his spring 2024 form—gliding effortlessly through tiny gaps, as if his x-ray vision could penetrate any defensive wall. There was no doubt, no hesitation. It was as if his teammates recalled the whimsical connections he, Ben White, and Bukayo Saka once forged and transported themselves back to that golden period.
With 10 minutes remaining at the London Stadium, Arsenal displayed the very traits that often separate runners-up from champions. They had been dominant and well-distributed yet soft-bellied and uncertain, ruing the absence of a talisman who could bend a game to his will. Entering as a 67th-minute substitute, Odegaard waited 13 quiet minutes before deciding it was time to re-establish himself as the main character and the captain.
He produced a minute and a half of unfiltered creativity and vision that inspired Arsenal to a precious victory—one that, if they end their 22-year wait for the league title, will be etched into folklore.
His first contribution was conviction, something he had not always shown recently. He breached the West Ham defense with a beautifully curled pass down the inside of wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, setting Noni Madueke racing. But Madueke’s cross was cut out by goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
Twenty seconds later, Odegaard restored composure. When Gabriel’s header dropped from the sky, he refused to engage in a game of head tennis as his teammates had been sucked into. Instead, he brought the ball down on his instep and found a neat pass out of pressure to Cristhian Mosquera. The defender found Kai Havertz, who fed Odegaard again, spreading play wide to Madueke. Arsenal had control, and Odegaard had his mojo back.
His body language changed. He stalked whichever teammate was taking the throw, removing any doubt about where the ball was going, clear in his mind that he would make it happen. Playground rules.
When he received the ball from the throw, he exchanged flicks with Mosquera, opened his body as if to cross, and instead played a disguised reverse pass to set Havertz free in the West Ham box. Havertz knows Odegaard better than anyone, and he knew that as long as he lost his marker, he would be found. He drove to the goal line, but his cutback was intercepted.
Still, West Ham could not break the chain. Nineteen seconds later, another throw, another Odegaard play to defend. William Saliba fed him the ball 30 yards out, in his usual position toward the right flank. He wriggled away from Pablo at his back and drove toward Jarrod Bowen and Mateus Fernandes, sucking them toward the ball. He poked the ball into Havertz in the box, but possession was recycled back toward the wing.
He demanded the ball inside the box, but Mosquera and Madueke were not the right players to thread it through to him. That was his job. Odegaard admitted defeat and dropped outside the West Ham shape to collect it again.
Take two. There was no space. He would have to create it. He stood still to assess his options before drifting inside toward