Martin Odegaard Shines in Community Shield Victory
Martin Odegaard walked off in Cardiff with the trophy in one hand and the game in the other. Arsenal had thrashed Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield, but it was their captain’s performance that really felt like a statement.
This looked like the Odegaard of old – sharp, relentless, ruthless in the final third. The same player who helped ignite Mikel Arteta’s revolution, not the one who limped through a stop-start, injury-riddled 2025-26.
Last season, Arsenal ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title. Odegaard, though, watched too much of it from the treatment room. Knee and shoulder problems restricted him to just 16 league starts. One goal. Seven assists. His leanest return since joining permanently from Real Madrid in 2021-22.
On Sunday, he played like a man determined to erase that memory.
Captain back in command
Cardiff saw Odegaard everywhere. Dropping deep to knit play, popping up between the lines, pressing high, dragging City’s midfield all over the pitch. When the game needed control, he supplied it. When it needed incision, he found it.
The numbers backed up the eye test. Of all Arsenal players on the pitch, he completed the most passes (55 of 58), the most dribbles (3 of 3) and won possession more than anyone else (nine times). That is not just a nice day out; that is dominance.
The moment that will live longest, though, came with Arsenal already cruising. Odegaard shaped to shoot, let the ball roll, and his dummy sent Gianluigi Donnarumma sprawling the wrong way. Only then did he finish, coolly, for Arsenal’s third. A flourish that felt almost cruel, and absolutely deliberate.
For a player whose quality has never really been in doubt, last season raised awkward questions. Why had his influence dipped? Should he remain captain? Former players debated his role. On this evidence, those debates can quieten for a while.
Arsenal’s crowded, glittering midfield
If Arteta wanted to jolt his midfield into another gear, he has done it with a sledgehammer. Bruno Guimaraes has arrived for £75m, a marquee signing to add even more bite and craft to an already stacked department.
Mikel Merino, one of the many options in that area, has called Arsenal’s midfield group “probably the best in football”. Look at the list and it is hard to argue: Odegaard, Guimaraes, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Merino. Depth, variety, creativity, steel. Take your pick.
Guimaraes, on for 45 minutes in Cardiff, impressed in his first outing. The intriguing part for Arsenal is how quickly he and Odegaard seemed to find a rhythm together. One dropping, one drifting wide, both comfortable receiving under pressure. It looked natural, not forced.
The competition is fierce. For Odegaard, that might be exactly what he needs. A captain who suddenly has to fight for touches and spaces in the most talent-rich area of the pitch tends to respond one of two ways. On Sunday, he chose the right one.
From frustration to fuel
Odegaard did not hide from how painful last year was.
“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 afterwards. “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.”
He finished the club season fit, then carried that momentum into the World Cup with Norway. Five starts in six games, four assists, and the sense that his touch and timing had returned. That tournament seems to have reset him.
“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,” he said. “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.”
That mindset showed in Cardiff. There was no sign of a player easing his way back. This was intensity from the first whistle.
“Sometimes you are just in the flow. You need to find that on the pitch,” he added. “All of us were flowing pretty good out there. I will just try to keep that up and keep going.”
Arteta’s “different Martin”
Arteta has seen both versions of Odegaard: the one who drives Arsenal’s tempo and the one stuck on the sidelines, unable to build any rhythm.
“Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum,” the manager 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.”
Arteta spoke of a change he noticed the moment Odegaard returned for pre-season.
“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.”
That hunger is what elevates this beyond a flashy August performance. Arsenal are not a project anymore; they are champions, there to be hunted. Their captain must set the standard.
On Sunday, with a medal around his neck and City beaten soundly, Odegaard looked ready to do exactly that.
If this is the level he holds across a full, injury-free campaign, Arsenal’s biggest signing of the summer might be the one they already had.
