Martin Odegaard told me how Arsenal could make huge change in title race - and now they have

Martin Odegaard has been in excellent form for Arsenal since the turn of the year. From his integral display against Liverpool in a title-defining victory to breaking records against West Ham and becoming the first player in Europe’s top five leagues to break the 50 chances created threshold, he has been stellar.

His form has coincided, and is by no means a coincidence, with a massive boost to the Gunners’ goal tally. 21 have been scored in the last five games meaning an average of more than four per match with the last two away fixtures totalling 11 between the West Ham and Burnley routs.

It was not so long ago that goalscoring was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons with the ease at which the Gunners put teams away in the first half of last season not being replicated this time around. However, whilst in the league the goals were not forthcoming, in Europe it was a different story.

An opening night return to Europe’s elite competition saw four goals scored against PSV in a group stage that saw the club finish as one of the tournament’s highest scorers with 16 goals. Following the 6-0 home win against RC Lens, I asked Odegaard for football.london how the side would translate their free-scoring form in the Champions League to their Premier League exploits.

«It’s a good question, I think of course the European football is a bit different maybe a bit more transitions, a bit more open but of course we want to take that into the league,” he said. “We want to keep playing well, keep scoring goals and [play] offensive, good football so we have to defend well and then play good when we have the ball so that's what we want to do.»

Fast forward to the week of the return of the European elite competition and Arsenal’s domestic