Keown names Arsenal star who ‘missed an opportunity’ vs Napoli and it’s not Gyokeres
Martin Keown heaped praise on Martin Odegaard for another standout display for Arsenal in their 1-0 on Wednesday, but picked out one of his teammates who “missed an opportunity”.
The Gunners captain proved decisive as his strike in the 75th minute secured all three points for a Mikel Arteta’s profligate side.
Arsenal had 26 shots to the hosts’ five and racked up an xG of 4.05 on a night on which their finishing let them down.
Viktor Gyokeres was handed his first start of the season and failed to stake his claim for a spot in the starting XI and Keown also wasn’t convinced by Mikel Merino’s display.
“I thought Mikel Merino coming back into midfield missed an opportunity tonight,” Keown said on TNT Sports. “We missed him last season but I thought he was a little rusty on his first start for a while.
“But overall it’s looking good for Arsenal. The drive and determination and hunger is there.
“Those Napoli players will tell you that Arsenal are going to go all the way again this season because that will have been one of the most difficult games they would have been involved in.
“Martin Odegaard is the icing on the cake. Shooting from outside the box, I can’t remember the last time he did that. He looks like the real deal.”
Joe Cole also lauded Odegaard for his performance, insisting he is “at the peak of his powers” at the start of the season.
“Martin Odegaard was brilliant all night,” the former Chelsea and England star said. “He is back to his very, very best.
“He is probably thinking even though they won the league last season, he didn’t have a good season personally. He looks like the player we admired 18 months ago, he was brilliant.
“Everything runs through Martin Odegaard. He can stand still and find space. He is at the peak of his powers and it is beautiful to watch.
“You can’t help but love watching him play his football.”
READ: Arteta ‘raging’ at Arsenal trio during Napoli win – ‘We missed so many great chances’
Arteta ‘very, very happy’
Arteta was generally pleased with what he saw from his side despite them “missing so many great chances”.
“We fully deserved the three points,” Arteta told TNT Sports after the game. “The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result, the team was superb.
“We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances.
“On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created but we got the win in the end.”
Arteta added: “I’m very, very happy. 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.”
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