Mikel Arteta heaped praise on his Arsenal side’s dominant display after Martin Odegaard’s decisive strike earned the Gunners a hard-fought 1-0 victory away against Napoli in their Champions League opener.
The Gunners controlled proceedings at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, dominating territory and carving out 26 attempts while limiting the hosts to just five shots all evening.
Despite the overwhelming superiority, Arsenal repeatedly failed to convert their openings, with Bukayo Saka, Mikel Merino, Piero Hincapié, and Noni Madueke all missing clear sights of goal.
The breakthrough finally arrived 15 minutes from time when substitute Christos Tzolis helped orchestrate a neat move, allowing captain Odegaard to step up and fire home the crucial winner.
‘The team was superb’
“It was a fully deserved three points. The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result, the team was superb,” Arteta said.
“We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances. On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created.”
The Spanish manager also singled out his match-winning skipper for special praise, highlighting the midfielder’s growing knack for delivering decisive goals when his side needs them most to maintain their 100 per cent start to the campaign.
“Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, being decisive and certainly he was again today,” Arteta added.
The narrow victory gets Arsenal’s European journey off to a winning start, rewarding their territorial control and adding vital momentum ahead of their upcoming Premier League trip to face Sunderland.
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