Kevin Campbell claimed last night that Martin Odegaard had a “mad 10 minutes” during Arsenal’s win over Olympiacos.
The Gunners produced a great away performance to beat Olympiacos 3-1 away from home in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 fixture.
Mikel Arteta’s side now have control of the tie ahead of next weekend’s second leg, but before that they have the North London derby against Arsenal.
Odegaard, who was named in the starting XI, was a big talking point after a busy game.
The 22-year-old attacking midfielder netted his first goal for the Gunners, as he opened the scoring with a left-footed effort from distance that the goalkeeper couldn’t keep out due to the sheer pace on the strike.
Sky Sports pundit Campbell, who is a big Arsenal supporter, did state post-match though that he had a crazy few minutes where he was indecisive in his team’s defensive third.
He’s certainly someone capable and intelligent on the ball, but Arsenal’s philosophy of playing out from the back has got them in trouble several times this season, including last night for Olympiacos’ goal.
“He did some great things. He actually had a mad 10 minutes where any time he was around our own box he was trying to lay balls off and it was going to the opposition,” Campbell told Highbury Squad.
“He was giving it back to them on the edge of the box, someone of his quality should be finding that blue shirt. I thought at the offensive end he looked sharp, he looked very, very clever on the ball. He looked inventive.”

TBR’s View:
Odegaard has now started in back-to-back games, so it’ll be interesting to see if he regains his position in the huge showdown with rivals Tottenham on Sunday in the Premier League.
The Norwegian playmaker should take huge confidence away from his first Arsenal goal, especially as it came in such emphatic fashion.
It’s been a fairly low-key start to his Gunners career since he joined on loan from Real Madrid, but he’s capable of the spectacular and the place to take risks with his passing is in the final third.
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