(Brighton – Arsenal 2-4) Arsenal finished 2022 with Martin Odegaard (24) top scorer and at the top of the table – seven points behind Manchester City.
Manchester City and third-placed Newcastle both stumbled at home earlier on New Year’s Eve.
Arsenal thanked and bowed, and had a great away game against Brighton.
Once again, captain Martin Odegaard was pivotal as Arsenal won for the 14th time in 16 Premier League matches.
– We don’t care about other teams. Three points were all today and we managed to get them, Odegaard tells Sky Sports.
He made it 2-0 just before half-time and is Arsenal’s top scorer with seven goals in all competitions this season. His colleague Bukayo Saka also scored seven goals.
He does what we want him to do, to decide football matches, says manager Mikel Arteta.
Drammensen’s performances garnered several reactions from England:
– Ødegaard is on a whole different level, writes Simon Collings in the Evening Standard.
He got nine on the stock exchange in the London newspaper.
Serious question: Is Martin Odegaard the best player in the Premier League right now? asks Sam Dean, a reporter for The Telegraph.
– Everything he does is classy, former Arsenal hero referee Alan Smith.
Ødegaard was also named best on the field by Smith, commentating for English Sky Sports. The Norwegian was also named Player of the Tournament in the previous round against West Ham.
But it’s not just the Norwegian’s goals that spark enthusiasm. Ødegaard frequently dominated and had a first class assist when Martinelli scored to make it 4-1.
– A pass to Ødegaard is absolutely top-shelf, says former Stoke and Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis on the BBC.
It was Bukayo Saka who launched the first rocket of the New Year into the AMEX stadium – two minutes into the match.
He was safe from close range after Brighton full-back Tariq Lamptey lost the ball in his own half.
Martinelli fired a shot that went past some Brighton defenders and landed on Saka.
Ødegaard also wanted to join in the fun. He showed these beautiful details when he nearly assisted Martinelli in the first leg:
Six minutes before the end of the first half, Ødegaard showed what a goalscorer he had become.
And the 24-year-old picked up the second ball after a corner kick before finishing across the floor, perhaps somewhat unluckily, into the far corner.
It was the Norwegian’s 16th goal in Arsenal’s squad.
Then I went all out with four points in the second half.
Nketiah scored in his second consecutive game when he bounced in a rebound after a finish by Martinelli.
After just over twenty minutes, Kaoru Mitoma was cold on his own with Aaron Ramsdale and cut the score to 1-3.
Six minutes later, Martin Odegaard produced the best involvement of the game when he assisted Martinelli, who got half a football field to himself when he increased the deficit to 1-4.
Odegaard got the glimpse he needed in advance before laying down a brilliant pass to the Brazilian.
With just over a quarter of an hour left to play, Brighton pulled one back again when Ivan Ferguson chased a ball into the back room and it ended up between the legs of Aaron Ramsdale.
With a Norwegian at Arsenal and Erling Braut Haaland at Manchester City, there is a good chance the Norwegian will lift the Premier League trophy for the first time in 16 years.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Manchester United was the last Norwegian player to do just that.
Premier League
- Champions League
- European league
- exclusion
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