Arsenal win in Naples but half-the-team owes Odegaard a fancy dinner as payback

By Alessandro Schiavone

3 hours ago

3 min read

By Alessandro Schiavone at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona

Napoli 0-1 Arsenal

Goal: Odegaard 75'

Arsenal bounced back from their heartbreaking Champions League final loss in Budapest by kicking off the new edition with a 1-0 win at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

But Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Mikel Merino, Bruno Guimaraes, Noni Madueke all owe Martin Odegaard a dinner at a fancy London restaurant.

Because the Norwegian’s 75th minute long ranger off the past from a delicious Tzolis cutback bailed out his profligate temamates. Arsenal haven’t lost a group stage game in this competition since November 2024 at Inter Milan.

And if the Premier League champs had obliterated Massimiliano Allegri’s Napoli 5-0 nobody could have said it wasn’t deserved.

On top from start to finish but somewhat ‘found out’ on set-pieces, with Napoli copying Chelsea at the weekend by keeping four players upfield at corners, they had to find a remedy from open-play. All the visitors did was hanging in there by keeping it tight but all they produced were two inefficient Napoli efforts from Politano and KDB .

On the back of a three-game winning run , which stood in stark contrast to Napoli’s winless two-game streak prior to the game, Mikel Arteta’s adventurous side aimed to lay down an early marker.

But Saka’s spectacular overhead kick was too central to bother Alex Meret in goal early on.

While Merino, who could have become Spain’s World Cup final hero had he had his shooting boots on in extra-time against Argentina, failed to score again from a few yards out. His header, after Eze’s immaculate flick-on at the far-post from Saka’s cross, was diverted over the bar by the Italy’s number 3 goalie.

The latter should have done much better when, through on goal, he blazed over while Hincapie nearly spectacularly caught out Meret with a shot-cross only for the ex-Udinese goalkeeper to back-pedal and push it out.

The Ecuadorian went on to miss two sitters either side of half-time, the second time firing over despite having the freedom of the hosts’ penalty area.

When Arteta needed inspiration he turned to ex-Newcastle hero Bruno Guimaraes but the Brazilian didn’t offer much in the way of creativity and cutting edge and even fired over once. Madueke too fluffed his lines one-on-one with substitute goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic while assist-man Tzolis’s follow up was blocked on the line.

Arsenal’s need for a world-class nr 9 became even more evident in Naples. If only Messi's partner-in-crime from Qatar 2022 had adapted better to life in Manchester a few years ago he might have bitten the bullet and positively answered Arteta’s calls when Atletico made it clear he wasn’t going to be sold to Barcelona but only abroad.

Those regrets could have turned into a remorse had anyone stolen in at the far-post when Kevin De Bruyne played a venomous pass across the face of goal only for it to go to waste...

That was Allegri's gameplan all along and it was nearly executed. But Arsenal would only have had themselves to blame for it.

If only Napoli still had a game-changer like Maradona, Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen or Higuain… if and if only La Araña had accepted north London.

But that’s immaterial now as at least half-a-dozen Gunners stars owe Odegaard a fancy dinner in a swanky Mayfair or Knightsbridge restaurant.

Does anyone know a good place around there?

But more pressing: can Arsenal win the Champions League without a world-class number 9?

Napoli 4-3-3

Meret

Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Rafa Marín, Olivera

De Bruyne, Gilmour, Lobotka

Politano, Højlund, Alisson Santos

Used: Milinković-Savić, Favasuli, Vergara, Neres, Lucca.

Arsenal 4-2-3-1