Why Martin Odegaard's absence will leave creative hole in Arsenal midfield

Any Premier League supporter will acknowledge that the absence of these two is undoubtedly a huge loss for the club, as we are talking about players who are among those at Arsenal who are the most difficult to replace. But how difficult is it and how important are Rice and Odegaard? We have tested this on the basis of last season.

The pair are among the top five Arsenal players to have made the most first-team appearances in the 2023/24 Premier League. The most were collected by William Saliba, who did not miss a minute of any of the games at the time. Rice is second on the list with one game missed, followed by Ben White, Bukayo Saka and the aforementioned Odegaard, who each had 35 games played from the first minute.

The situation looks even more serious when looking at the number of minutes spent on Premier League pitches last season. Behind Saliba, it is Rice and Odegaard who are next on the list in this respect. And this already makes it very clear how complicated the situation for Arsenal will be if both of them are missing in the match against Tottenham.

It will be recalled that Rice was shown two yellow cards in the last league game against Brighton, and thus has to serve a one-match suspension. Odegaard picked up an ankle injury with Norway during the international break.

How does it look in terms of a possible replacement for the leaders in their positions? In terms of Saliba, we can't talk about any replacements, because nobody has had to replace him even once. Rice's absence from the starting line-up, on the other hand, happened only once - in the home game against Luton. He was replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe, but Rice came on after the break and Arsenal were already leading 2-0 after the first half.

There were no great problems replacing White either. He was not in the first line-up in three rounds last season. Each time he was replaced by Takehiro Tomiyasu, and Arsenal won all those meetings. Of course, that doesn't mean the Japanese is playing at the level of the Englishman, but his absence wasn't felt as much. The situation was different with Odegaard.

The Norwegian plays perhaps a bit on the sidelines and is not the character who first catches the eye in Arsenal's team. Saka takes the plaudits and Kai Havertz has shone in recent months. But it is the playmaker who is Arsenal's captain, the mental leader on the pitch, and the man who determines the entire offensive game, and it is often his disposition that is crucial in picking up the play of the entire team.

Last season he was missing for three games in a row - against Sheffield United, Newcastle and Burnley. He was then replaced in the midfield line by Havertz. Fortunately for Arsenal, the matches against the relegation side were in London and were confidently won even in the absence of their leader.

In the meeting with Newcastle it was no longer so easy and the Gunners suffered a painful defeat at St. James's Park. However, the statistics from all three games show that Arsenal without Odegaard simply played worse offensively in all these matches.

Note, for example, the rate of actions that lead to a shot at the opponent's goal. This statistic takes into account the two plays, such as passes, slide tackles, crosses or fouls won, that lead to a shot by the team. Arsenal's record for such plays was against West Ham, when they had 58, and in as many as 20 games they recorded a minimum of 28 such actions. Odegaard was on the pitch in every one of them.

And consider, after all, that Arsenal, in the absence of Odegaard, played at home against Sheffield United and Burnley. While the poorer away performance against Newcastle can still be explained by the quality of the opponent, the reason for the poor offensive play against the teams towards the bottom has to be found elsewhere. Against Burnley, Arsenal had 27 shots on goal and against Sheffield United just 24, although they scored five goals. 

Instead, how can we compare the matches without Odegaard and Saka? Did the absence of the Englishman, who is considered the team's biggest star, also affect the team's play so badly? Well, without their winger, the Gunners played three games in the Premier League last season and won all of them - against Luton, Everton and also... Manchester City.

Against the Hatters and Citizens, you can actually see the inferior offensive numbers, but the performance against Everton without Saka was Arsenal's fifth-best performance last season in the number of actions leading to a shot.

It is also worth mentioning that Odegaard was the best in the entire league last season in creating shooting situations for his colleagues. He made a total of 220 such actions then, 10 more than second-placed Bruno Fernandes. Third-placed Saka had 188, fourth-placed Pascal Gross 185 and fifth-placed Luis Diaz 163.

This means that Odegaard's absence in the coming matches could be crucial. After all, we're not just talking about one match, as the Norwegian is expected to be out for a few weeks, and that would mean he would also miss the big hit against Manchester City in the next round. Tottenham, however, remain a very strong opponent, especially at their stadium, and the absence of Rice and Odegaard could be an irreplaceable loss in this case.