Patrick Vieira made his debut for Arsenal at the old Highbury stadium against Sheffield Wednesday on September 16, 1996. “The first time he played, he came on in the first half, it was a shock to people,” recalled Arsene Wenger, who signed Vieira for Arsenal from AC Milan. “He was like a genie from the lamp,” Wenger says in the book, ‘The Wenger Revolution: Twenty Years of Arsenal’.
Wenger credits Vieira’s signing and his subsequent performances with giving him the credibility he needed to take the club in the direction he wanted to steer it in. “Right from his very first match, when he was as yet unknown to the British public, he showed just how talented he was,” recalled Wenger later. “No one disputed his ability.”
Six years after Vieira arrived at Arsenal, Tony Adams, the Gunners’ legendary captain, retired from the game at the age of 36. It was time to pick a new captain.
Wenger tapped Vieira.
“He was a fighter, he was a fantastic football player and as well, I don’t think he was the same type of captain as Tony Adams, who was a more vocal leader,” Wenger later told www.arsenal.com. “He was more of a guy who through the quality of his attitude and the quality of his game, became a natural leader in the side.”
After Arsenal started the 2002/03 season — Vieira’s first as captain — in encouraging fashion, Wenger announced in a press conference that the Gunners could win the Premier League title without losing a match throughout the entire season.
Wenger’s confidence stemmed from Arsenal’s stellar away record the previous season, during which they had remained unbeaten in the league.
Arsenal’s start to the 2002/03 season, during which they collected 24 out of a possible 27 points from their first 9 league matches, looked as if Wenger’s bold claim could true but the Gunners ultimately failed to sustain their momentum and finished as runners-up to Manchester United.
At the end of the season, Wenger asked his players why they hadn’t managed to win the Premier League title, even though they had managed to win the FA Cup.
“They told me I was putting too much pressure on them, that the goal of winning the Premier League without losing a match seemed unachievable to them,” writes Wenger in his book, ‘My Life in Red and White’.
When the squad reassembled for the 2003/04 season after the summer break, the Arsenal manager reiterated his challenge: win the title without losing a match, emulate Preston North End’s feat set in 1889, and become the modern-day Invincibles.
On May 15, 2004, with victory over Leicester City at Highbury in the Gunners’ final Premier League match of the season, Arsenal’s players delivered on their manager’s promise.
“That has always been a lesson for me,” recalled Wenger in the book. “Setting the highest ambition and believing in it, sowing the seeds one year and harvesting two years later.”
SECOND-TIME LUCKY FOR THE GUNNERS?
Mikel Arteta and his young Arsenal side stunned onlookers last season by topping the Premier League table for most of the campaign before falling away towards the end of the season. This year, they’re stronger and more determined to last the distance. And in Martin Odegaard, they have a young captain who, like Vieira, is in his second season as club captain, and set on leading the Gunners to the promised land.
“I think this will bother me for the rest of my life,” Odegaard said in June this year about Arsenal’s failed title bid last season. “We were very close, I almost managed to achieve my dream, I think it will be painful for the rest of my life but we have to try again next year.”
The 24-year-old, who scored 15 goals and registered 8 assists last season, has been decisive again for Arsenal this season, with 2 goals in 4 matches so far.
He first led the Gunners to the Community Shield title against Manchester City before choreographing his side’s unbeaten start to the campaign 4 matches into the new season.
DEMANDING THE BALL
One of Odegaard’s most compelling attributes is his desire for the ball. When he finds himself in a position from where he believes he can be decisive, the Norwegian starts gesticulating wildly, his arms flapping up and down either side of his torso, a human windmill trying to catch the attention of his teammates.
He impleads, commands and hankers teammates for the ball, a sign of his appetite for responsibility.
In March 2021, when the Norwegian was still on loan at Arsenal from Real Madrid, West Ham United raced to a 3-0 lead against Arsenal at the London Stadium in a Premier League game.
Odegaard, all of 23 years old, stepped up and took charge.
“When everyone else was a little trembling, he gave us that stability and that composure on the ball and he created chance after chance,” said Arsenal manager Arteta after the match.
Odegaard had a hand in all three of Arsenal’s goals that evening, as he exploited the space on West Ham’s left flank to play in Callum Chambers and Nicolas Pepe, who both supplied the crosses that resulted in the Gunners’ goals. By the end of the match, Arsenal had gone from facing the prospect of a 0-3 thrashing 33 minutes into the encounter, to salvaging a point when referee Jonathan Moss blew the final whistle.
“The way he steps on the pitch, he always wants the ball, the way he commands the pressing. He’s been really influential,” Arteta said after the match.
look at me. LOOK at me!
In May 2023, with the Premier League title on the line and Manchester City breathing down Arsenal’s neck, the Gunners visited St.James’ Park to take on overachieving Newcastle United. Fourteen minutes into the game, Odegaard floated a free kick into the Newcastle penalty box.
As the Magpies tried and failed to clear the ball away from the vicinity of the box, Bukayo Saka received it in the right half-space. Seeing space open up in the middle of the pitch as Newcastle clustered around their goalmouth, Odegaard darted forward towards Saka. The Arsenal skipper had his arms outstretched, calling for the ball.
Saka passed instead to Jorginho, who was nearer and to Odegaard’s right. The Gunners captain gently pedalled back to his previous position in central midfield, and waited. When Jorginho feigned a pass to his right and passed to Odegaard on his left instead, the Norwegian transferred the ball on to his favoured left foot before rifling in a shot towards the Newcastle goal. Nick Pope, the Magpies keeper, was beaten, and Arsenal went on to score one more goal and win 2-0.
On Sunday against Manchester United, with Arsenal under the pump once again after going behind to a magnificent goal by Marcus Rashford, Odegaard strode to the middle of the pitch and began waving to his teammates to pass him the ball.
Gabriel Martinelli, Arsenal’s Brazilian winger, was in possession and had just entered United’s penalty box on the left side. Odegaard’s arms immediately went up, as the Norway captain also entered the United box trying to catch Martinelli’s attention.
He got it.
Martinelli nutmegged Casemiro, his compatriot who was trying to dispossess him of the ball, and rolled it across to Odegaard. The Gunners captain was in space in front of the goal and lashed home a left-footer to help Arsenal achieve parity and make the score 1-1. United’s lead had lasted just 110 seconds.
Odegaard continued to be influential in the tie, making well-timed runs into the box, spraying crucial passes to teammates in dangerous positions (one such pass almost resulted in a goal, only for Saka to shoot straight at United goalkeeper Andre Onana) and rallying fellow Gunners to capitalise on any space left at the back by the opposition.
A SIX-YEAR JOURNEY TO ARSENAL
Odegaard has come a long way since he visited Arsenal as a 15-year-old boy in 2015, when Arsene Wenger tried to snap up the Scandinavian wunderkind for the Gunners.
“I was desperate to sign him. Fortunately, he is here now. He really is like a young Cesc Fabregas. I think he has developed into a complete player,” said Wenger in January this year, after watching Odegaard help Arsenal to a 4-2 win over Brighton and Hove Albion.
“He really is a down-to-earth and nice boy. The way he analyses the game. He also did that as a 15-year-old… the sharpness!” Wenger told Norwegian television channel TV 2.
Despite being courted by Arsenal as well as other major clubs as a 15-year-old, Odegaard chose to join Real Madrid in 2015 to try and make it big at the Spanish giants. Unfortunately for him, the Norwegian never got a chance to establish himself at the Santiago Bernabeu and was cast out on a series of loans, with his last loan move taking place in January 2021 to the Gunners.
Three days after joining Arsenal, Odegaard made his debut, coming on as an 84th minute substitute during a Premier League match at the Emirates against Manchester United.
Two weeks later, he made his first start, against Leeds United. Fifteen months later, he was named the new Arsenal captain.
“His self-demand is brutal,” Arteta said in June this year about his new skipper. “He understands everything very well and learns quickly. We help him by giving him responsibility and confidence by making him a captain. I told him: ‘with this (role) will come more demands and your ability to transmit will be the key. Be you,’” Arteta said in his comments to Spanish daily Marca.
“Martin is very reserved, but when he speaks, he is heard,” the Arsenal manager said while describing Odegaard’s style of leadership.
“He does everything required: he takes care of himself; he cares and improves others; he has education, love for the game, commitment.”
In the summer of 2024, it will be 20 years since an Arsenal captain lifted the Premier League trophy in triumph. That man, Patrick Vieira, had this to say about Odegaard in May this year, after Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton in the Premier League torpedoed their hopes of winning the 2022/23 title:
“You want leadership and Martin has been the technical leader on the field but they are missing a physical leader, a leader who can get at the back of players when they are not performing at the right level.
“They need a team that is more competitive. You look at the physical attributes of Manchester City and they are bigger and stronger than Arsenal. It’s up to Mikel (Arteta) to address that in the summer,” said Vieira.
Following the additions of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz in midfield, Jurrien Timber in defence and David Raya in goal, Arsenal are undoubtedly a stronger side now than they were last season. It remains to be seen, however, if these reinforcements are enough to catch up with a City side that won the treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup last season.
When his team needs him, though, Arsenal can be assured of one thing. Martin Odegaard will be there, arms flapping about his sides furiously if need be, stepping up to the plate.