Football Features Writer @nicholaspwright
Wednesday 9 September 2026 23:19, UK
Arsenal opened their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win at Napoli, Martin Odegaard's superb strike proving decisive. The Gunners dominated the match but made it harder than necessary by missing a string of chances.
Arsenal attempted 26 shots, their most on record in a Champions League game, and racked up 4.05 expected goals. Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka spurned the best opportunities of the first half, and Piero Hincapie blazed over from close range after the break.
Odegaard's goal came after a quick one-two with substitute Christos Tzolis, the captain firing a low shot in off the post from the edge of the box. It was his fourth goal in five games this season. Substitute Noni Madueke then missed a one-on-one chance, and Tzolis's follow-up was blocked on the line, leaving Arsenal to endure a late scare. Kevin De Bruyne, another substitute, had a rare Napoli chance in the final minutes but chose to cross instead of shooting, allowing Arsenal to celebrate a fifth straight win in all competitions.
Sky Sports' Nick Wright said Odegaard was in outstanding form. The Arsenal captain demanded the ball, found gaps in Napoli's defence and threaded passes forward. His goal came after a 29-pass build-up. He ended the game with more touches, passes and chances created than anyone else on the pitch. One example of his creativity was the scooped pass that released Ben White for the chance Hincapie missed. "Martin is contributing goals," said Mikel Arteta after the game. "That is obviously impacting results which is what we want from our attacking players, to be decisive, and certainly he was that today."
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to TNT Sports:
"Fully deserved for the three points.
"I don't know the amount of chances and situations we generated but the performance doesn't reflect the result. It should have been much bigger – in a really tough environment, a really tough opponent. I think the team was superb.
"The way we competed, attitude, courage, the way we imposed ourselves on the game, the quality we showed to break them down, which is very difficult to do. It was a shame because we missed so many big chances.
"That's great that a lot of very different players got in those situations. Any other day the result [score] would be different."
