Martin Odegaard’s fantastic performance in Arsenal’s win over Fulham on Saturday evening prompted Gary Lineker to question Real Madrid ’s decision to sell the Norway star.
Odegaard helped to instigate the Gunners’ comeback from a goal behind to secure a 2-1 victory which ensured they maintained their perfect start to the season and stayed top of the Premier League table. The Arsenal captain scored a deflected effort eight minutes after Aleksandar Mitrovic fired Fulham into the lead before Gabriel Magalhaes grabbed the winner from a corner.
Odegaard’s goal came after he netted twice in the 3-0 win over Bournemouth last weekend. The 23-year-old is one of the Premier League’s form players and is already justifying Arsenal’s decision to pay Real Madrid £30million plus £4m in add-ons last summer following a successful loan spell.
While Arsenal have clearly got themselves a good deal, Lineker cannot understand why the Spanish giants allowed Odegaard to leave in the first place. The Real midfield is manned by Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, but Lineker believes Odegaard would have made a perfect replacement for the 36-year-old Croatian and 32-year-old German.
“Do you know what baffles me a little bit, is how have Real Madrid let him slip away when they’ve got Modric and Kroos, who are really at the end of their careers?” he said on Match of the Day. “It’s a strange one because he’s so clearly talented, isn’t he?”
Odegaard currently has 12 goals and seven assists in 64 appearances for Arsenal, but he looks set to improve on that figure this season. Despite only being at the club since joining on an initial loan in January 2021, Odegaard was named the club’s captain earlier this summer following the departures of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
Mikel Arteta believes Odegaard’s performance and leadership against Fulham demonstrates exactly why he gave the midfielder the armband. “Influence, and in difficult moments, take the ball,” he said in his post-match press conference. “That’s what he’s done.”
Odegaard was delighted with the comeback. “Yeah, it was brilliant,” he told Sky Sports. “We knew it was going to be a tough game against this team. They are a strong team, so it’s brilliant we get three points, we fight and showed great team spirit. It’s an amazing feeling.”
He added: “Yeah, I think we played a really good first half, we just missed the goal and then we were a bit unlucky. That’s football, it happens and then it’s just the team’s job to lift him (Gabriel) up again. Also he shows great character to come back and score the winning goal. I think it shows the team spirit, you know. Someone makes a mistake, we lift him up and we take responsibility and we strike back.”
