{"id":932496,"date":"2026-09-07T11:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T16:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/odegaard-says-arsenal-showed-title-winning-quality-with-chelsea-fightback\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T11:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T16:18:49","slug":"odegaard-says-arsenal-showed-title-winning-quality-with-chelsea-fightback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/odegaard-says-arsenal-showed-title-winning-quality-with-chelsea-fightback\/","title":{"rendered":"Odegaard says Arsenal showed title-winning quality with Chelsea fightback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Martin Odegaard said Arsenal had issued a reminder of their title-winning quality after they fought back to beat Chelsea 2-1 and end their rivals&#8217; perfect start under Xabi Alonso.<\/p>\n<p>Odegaard scored the winner five minutes into the second half on Saturday, finishing with aplomb after Kai Havertz allowed Christos Tzolis&#8217; pass to run into his path.<\/p>\n<p>The Premier League champions had trailed to Morgan Rogers&#8217; volley just 77 seconds in, but a pinpoint finish from Havertz got them level, before Odegaard provided the decisive moment.<\/p>\n<p>They join Manchester City at the top of the early-season table, with last term&#8217;s top two being the only sides to win nine points from their first three matches.<\/p>\n<p>It is just the third time the Gunners have started a top-flight season with three straight wins while conceding fewer than two goals (one in this case), after 1924-25, when they finished 20th, and 2003-04, when they completed an unbeaten title-winning campaign.<\/p>\n<p>And after shutout wins over Coventry City and Aston Villa, Odegaard felt it was important for Mikel Arteta&#8217;s men to show they can respond to setbacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a massive game against a tough opponent. It was really hard for us, but we got there in the end,&#8221; he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our mentality is to keep fighting. Conceding early wasn&#8217;t ideal, but we reacted really well. We played well in the second half and got our reward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We showed our quality today. The result reflected that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Arsenal win again to keep pace with Man City at the top \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/y2vTzFZE2I\">pic.twitter.com\/y2vTzFZE2I<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Premier League (@premierleague) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/premierleague\/status\/2096657551077036469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Odegaard also paid tribute to Havertz for his role in the winning goal, while the German&#8217;s own strike was his third against Chelsea in the Premier League since leaving the Blues.<\/p>\n<p>Among all players to represent Chelsea in the competition and then leave, only Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne (five apiece) have scored more goals against them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a really smart player and moves so well. He takes defenders&#8217; attention,&#8221; Odegaard said of Havertz.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When he makes the run and I come from behind, I&#8217;m always free. It was a brilliant goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the heart of Arsenal&#8217;s defence, Ezri Konsa made his first start since arriving from Aston Villa in a \u00a355m deal.<\/p>\n<p>An offside call against Konsa led to Riccardo Calafiori having a potential equaliser disallowed in the 12th minute, though a more positive moment saw the defender gets fans out of their seats with a hard but fair challenge on former team-mate Rogers in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It got the crowd going. If you get it wrong, it is bad but if you get it right, it&#8217;s always a good feeling,&#8221; Konsa said of that moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On another day, I think we score three or four.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve felt at home since the first moment I joined, the boys have been top, the staff have been top. I was buzzing to make my debut at home, and the three points were important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.soccernews.com\/odegaard-says-arsenal-showed-title-winning-quality-with-chelsea-fightback\/404451\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>SoccerNews Editorial Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Martin Odegaard said Arsenal had issued a reminder of their title-winning quality after they fought back to beat Chelsea 2-1 and end their rivals&#8217; perfect start under Xabi Alonso. Odegaard scored the winner five minutes into the second half on Saturday, finishing with aplomb after Kai Havertz allowed Christos Tzolis&#8217; pass to run into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":932497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22524,97271,2005],"tags":[7531,84186],"class_list":["post-932496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arsenal","category-odegaard","category-soccer","tag-arsenal","tag-odegaard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}