DANNY MURPHY: Arsenal's magic Martin Odegaard is a great leader like Beckham

Even among some brilliant Arsenal performances, Martin Odegaard stood out for me. He set the tone for a hugely impressive win and I can’t pay him a higher compliment than saying his captaincy reminds me of the way David Beckham led the England team I was part of.

I grew up in an era when captains were expected to be very vocal and giving their team-mates verbal rollockings was considered part of the job, but when I was called into the England squad I saw Beckham do it in a different way.

He gained total respect by the way he trained, played and conducted himself. It didn’t matter that he never ranted — we would be happy to follow him anywhere and that included some big names and egos in the rest of the team.

Odegaard reminds me of that. I was surprised when I first heard Mikel Arteta gave him the armband but it’s made perfect sense. The Norwegian was incredible at the Amex, a game Arsenal had to win and did so convincingly, leaving them top with more goals and fewer conceded than anyone.

Odegaard set the tone with his press. Brighton were good in the opening 15 minutes but he was relentless with and without the ball and ensured every one of his team were on the same page.

His movement was non-stop but in addition to that the technical levels were so high with the ball, there was always this link between the Arsenal midfield and attack. Quite simply, Odegaard is at the top of his game at the moment.

He is incredibly disciplined and available every week, another reason I think why Arteta anointed him as the official leader.

The unfortunate aspect for Arsenal is that despite all of that, it’s still not in their hands. That’s the standard of competition in this season’s Premier League. If Liverpool win all of their last eight