The Arsenal duo ‘as good as anything in Europe’

All teams would rather be balanced but if you’re going to be unbalanced, be the best at it.

In their biggest European away win since 2008, Arsenal did exactly that. They were unbalanced, but in the 5-1 over Sporting, they were brilliantly so.

Walking down the tunnel at half-time with a 3-0 lead and en route to ending their four-game run without an away win in Europe, they knew they had done something right. In fact, it had been almost all right. In total, 65 per cent of their attacks had come down the right-hand side, and less than 20 per cent down the left.

It would be simple to explain that away as Arsenal’s desperation to get the ball to Bukayo Saka, and in part that is true, but it is as much down to the influence of Martin Odegaard.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” said Saka of Odegaard, who missed 12 games with an ankle injury sustained on international duty before making his comeback earlier this month.

“The day he returned, there was a big smile on my face. You can see the chemistry we have, how much I enjoy playing with him, so I’m happy he’s back.”

Little wonder. Saka and Odegaard have played more than 10,000 minutes of football together. No Arsenal attacker has played more. They have 11 direct shared goal participations (where one has scored and the other assisted); only Gabriel Martinelli has more with the England winger.

And Arsenal average 2.01 points when both men feature: by contrast, the more prolific Saka and Martinelli only average 1.87.

“Odegaard is a player that’s come in and really opened up that creative channel for Saka,” said former Arsenal defender Martin Keown on TNT Sport. “Those two in tandem are as good as anything in Europe on that right hand side of that pitch. They really are that good. He’s very intelligent. He’s always available [to receive the ball].”

Rio Ferdinand replied: “You notice it even more because he’s not been there.”

The key is Odegaard’s ability to recognise and separately create space, a commodity that Saka perhaps better than other Premier League forward is able to exploit. Against Sporting, unbeaten at home for 18 months, there was a staggering amount of it.

“You have to create that space. You have to earn it,” said Arteta afterwards.

“And normally they don’t give you that space. But I think we’re really clever, really intelligent, really efficient the way we attack them and and that’s the way we put our advantage forward.”

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The Norwegian is not afraid to drift as wide as the right touchline and allow his right winger Saka to come much narrower, where he can be more dangerous: against a back three, that pocket of space between the covering wing-back and left central defender is particularly coveted.

For the second goal on the night, assisted by Saka, Odegaard was directly behind him on the pitch, giving Maximiliano Araujo just enough indecision as to whether to press the free-roaming Arsenal captain or mark his man. His hesitation allowed the winger in behind and Arsenal were 2-0 up seconds later.

Just 14 minutes before, the third cog in Arsenal’s right-sided operation had bagged the first assist, Jurrien Timber firing the ball across for Martinelli to open the scoring.

“Really secure” is how Keown described him, but the 23-year-old is so much more than that – and he will need to be. Timber missed virtually his whole first season for Arsenal after suffering cruciate ligament damage 50 minutes into his Premier League debut, and now fellow right-back Ben White is to miss “months” after knee surgery of his own.

Timber is fully fit and working on adding more an attacking threat to his game. His expected assists still remains relative low (just 0.05 per 90 minutes) but the underlying numbers suggest progress is being made: according to Opta, he is in the top 10 per cent of full-backs for successful take-ons and the top 30 per cent for touches in the opposition penalty area and progressive passes.

None of that will matter to most unless it translates into assists and even goals, but with Saka and Odegaard opening up lanes ahead of him, it feels like a matter of time.