Odegaard stunner seals Arsenal’s dominant 1-0 win at Napoli as Arteta hails “desire to own the pitch”

Mikel Arteta hailed Arsenal‘s desire to dominate after securing a 1-0 win at Napoli in the Champions League.

Arsenal kickstarted theirChampions League campaign with an impressive performance in Naples, securing three points at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Martin Odegaard‘s brilliant goal secured the win 15 minutes from full-time, in a fixture Arsenal had controlled in Italy.

The Norwegian’s fierce hit was his fourth in five games this season, and capped a wonderful intricate move from Arsenal on the edge of the area.

After neat interchange between Ben White, Christos Tzolis and Odegaard, the Arsenal captain’s low drive flew past Alex Meret and in off the woodwork.

The North London side’s margin of victory could, and should, have been far greater, with Mikel Merino and Piero Hincapie missing clear-cut chances as Arsenal recorded 24 efforts on goal. That number is a record for Arsenal in a Champions League game away from home.

“The desire to dominate, to own the pitch”: Arteta lauds Arsenal’s control as Odegaard downs Napoli 1-0 away

Reflecting on the win, Arteta said he was delighted with his side’s hunger and desire to dominate the contest.

“I’m very, very happy,”he said. “A really tough place to come and a really different environment to play football – a beautiful one, by the way – against a really good team.

“I love the way we attacked the game, the way we competed, the hunger that we showed, the desire to dominate, to come here, to own the pitch, and the quality that we showed against a team that it’s so difficult to create chances against. We created a huge amount of them and the result doesn’t reflect what we saw on the pitch.

“The players were immense, and to play with that personality, with that conviction and with that quality in the Champions League away from home, it’s something that I’m extremely pleased about.”