After their record-breaking feats last year in the Champions League, Arsenal are at it again. But having been delayed along with hundreds of travelling supporters by travel chaos on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta’s side had to bide their time against Napoli until Martin Ødegaard continued his rich vein of goalscoring to start the new campaign with the crucial strike.
Perhaps it was the fact they were forced to wear red shorts for the first time since a Premier League game against Watford in 2022 due to Uefa’s insistence that Arsenal were not quite at their flowing best here. Yet they were deserved winners in the end and the substitute, Noni Madueke, should have made the victory more comprehensive in the dying moments as Napoli chased the game. Having come so close to breaking their duck in this competition last year after becoming the first team to win all eight of their group stage matches, Arsenal look equipped to go all the way again if Ødegaard can keep up this sparkling form.
Arteta has bad memories of this stadium after being sent off in a 2-0 defeat during the Champions League group stage in 2013. But Arsenal’s most recent match here ended in victory as they reached the Europa League semi-finals under Unai Emery in 2019. Both clubs have been crowned domestic champions since then, with Napoli ending their 33 year wait in 2023. Yet Champions League success has continued to elude them. They finished third from bottom in the group stage last season.
That was in stark contrast to Arsenal, who were unbeaten over their 15 matches despite falling at the final hurdle. It was telling that Arteta kept faith with four of his back five who started against Chelsea on Sunday, with Piero Hincapié replacing Riccardo Calafiori at left-back. Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres also made their first starts of the season, although there was no place for Jurriën Timber on the bench despite making the trip after his groin injury.
Those Arsenal supporters who did make it to southern Italy had no problem making themselves heard, with plenty of empty seats in the home sections despite Max Allegri’s attempts to rally Napoli’s fans beforehand.
The game quickly settled into a pattern as Arsenal set up camp in Napoli’s half and the hosts attempted to hit them on the break. De Bruyne – no stranger to facing Arsenal after a decade in the sky blue of Manchester City – forced David Raya into a rare mistake after a typically driving run through the midfield but the ball was scrambled away to safety.
That came just after a spectacular overhead kick from Bukayo Saka at the other end was saved by Alex Meret and wasn’t the last time the Napoli goalkeeper needed to be at his best. Merino should have scored when he was set up by Eze’s clever header across the face of goal before Ben White drilled a shot straight into Meret’s grateful gloves.
Gabriel Magalhães was on hand to block a goalbound shot from the dangerous De Bruyne after another rapid break downfield. Matteo Politano did manage to test Raya again as Napoli continued to find gaps in Arsenal’s normally watertight defence. Arteta, who had barely sat down in the dugout during the opening 45 minutes, was clearly not amused with how open the game had become. His mood didn’t improve after Saka blazed over after a brilliant through ball from Martin Ødegaard on the stroke of half-time, with replays confirming the assistant had been wrong to raise his flag.
Meret did not return for the second half and was replaced by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, once on Manchester United’s books. The Serbia goalkeeper was a mere spectator for a flowing Arsenal move featuring a sumptuous scooped pass into the area that saw Hincapié miss the target after being picked out at the far post by White’s header. Suddenly Napoli found themselves suffocated by a blanket of red. Allegri, who knows what it feels like to have lost in a Champions League final after suffering that fate twice in three years at Juventus, responded by going to a back five and trying to hang on.
Arteta threw on Bruno Guimarães and Christos Tzolis in an attempt to find the breakthrough and the latter’s first contribution was to launch a volley into row Z. Arsenal’s pressure eventually told when Tzolis teed up Ødegaard after exchanging passes with White and his shot flew in off the post despite Milinkovic-Savic just getting his fingertips to the ball. Kai Havertz had the ball in the net in stoppage time it was disallowed for offside and the mission was already complete.
