A head-turning statistic surrounding the latest efforts of Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard in front of goal has come to the fore on Saturday evening.
Odegaard and Arsenal were of course back in action earlier this afternoon.
After seeing Manchester City close the gap atop the Premier League table to just two points, the Gunners welcomed Bournemouth to The Emirates, aware that nothing but a win of their own would suffice.
And, to the credit of Mikel Arteta’s troops, when all was said and done, clinch all three points is precisely what they went on to do.
This, however, only came about owing to the most remarkable of comebacks.
After Bournemouth stormed out into a two-goal lead inside the hour-mark, a quickfire double on the part of Thomas Partey and Ben White saw Arsenal level things up 20 minutes from time.
Mikel Arteta reacting to the Reiss Nelson goal 😂
The cameraman never stood a chance the way The Emirates was bouncing 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/WlfI2m567l
— SuperSport Football ⚽️ (@SSFootball) March 4, 2023
As alluded to above, though, whilst it was Nelson whose efforts in front of goal ultimately proved to be decisive on Saturday, they were preceded in near-record-breaking fashion by teammate Martin Odegaard.
Arsenal’s captain evidently failed to have the desired effect on the scoreline that he would have hoped for ahead of kick-off in north London.
But this did not come owing to a lack of trying on the Norwegian’s part.
As revealed by statisticians Opta, Odegaard was responsible for no fewer than 11 shots at goal over the course of the 90 minutes against Bournemouth.
This is a tally which, across the entirety of the competition’s history, has only ever been surpassed by four players in a single Premier League fixture:
Martin Ødegaard took 11 shots for Arsenal today vs. Bournemouth.
Only four players in recorded Premier League history (Rooney, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic and Van Persie) have ever had more in a single game#ARSBOU pic.twitter.com/LK90p1JoQc
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) March 4, 2023
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