Mikel Arteta Happy After Arsenal’s Victory but Wanted More Goals
Arsenal debuted with a win in the Champions League against Napoli, but Mikel Arteta asked for more goals.
Arsenal began their journey in the 2026-27 Champions League with a narrow 1-0 victory against Napoli at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. Martin Odegaard's goal in the 75th minute sealed the result, but the feeling was that the score did not reflect the Gunners' dominance. With 26 shots and an expected goals (xG) value of 4.05 against just 0.22 for the Italians, the London team generated much more than they could convert.
Convinced but demanding
Mikel Arteta expressed pride in the performance of his team, although he made it clear that he expected a more comfortable victory. "Everything," he replied when asked what had left him satisfied, "the way we competed, the attitude, the courage, how we imposed ourselves, and the quality we showed to break them down. It was a totally deserved victory. The performance does not reflect the result, the team was superb. On another day, the score would have been different." The coach praised the commitment and quality of his team, but emphasized that the lack of efficiency was the only blemish of the night.
Figure and voice of the team
The Norwegian captain, Ødegaard, was the absolute star, besides scoring the goal, he led in chances created (6), touches (120), and passes that broke defensive lines (5). "We played brilliant football and we should have scored many more goals, but we managed to do it in the end. We created a lot of chances, we just lacked the finishing touch," he acknowledged. With this goal, Odegaard reached four goals in five matches of the season and scored again in the Champions League after more than a year. The victory extended Arsenal's streak to 13 consecutive wins in the group stage, the second longest in the tournament's history behind Bayern Munich. However, both the captain and the coach agreed that the team must turn their dominance into more decisive results.
