Martin Odegaard scored two goals for Arsenal in their 3-1 victory over Chelsea on Tuesday, propelling them back to the top of the Premier League. However, Manchester City still holds the title, despite having played two fewer games than the leaders.
When captain Odegaard was given a lot of space by Chelsea’s weak defense twice, he scored in the 18th and 31st minutes and Gabriel Jesus converted from close range 11 minutes before the break to give Arsenal a 3-0 halftime lead.
Arsenal now have 78 points, two more than second-placed City, the reigning champions, who have a chance to reclaim the top spot when they play West Ham United on Wednesday. This was Arsenal’s first win in five games.
Mikel Arteta made three changes after City’s 4-1 defeat last week. Leandro Trossard, a striker, started in place of Gabriel Martinelli and Jakub Kiwior, a midfielder, got his first start in the league.
His side ruled their drooping London matches directly from the start up as they looked to shake off last week’s possibly title-choosing misfortune.
Granit Xhaka, who assisted on both of Odegaard’s goals, almost scored in the first minute but was stopped by Kepa Arrizabalaga, who made saves in the second half to prevent an Arsenal victory.
Odegaard said after he scored his 14th league goal of the season, “Everyone was so hurt after the game (against City).”
“We used the anger and the disappointment to get back into this game. You can lose games but the way we lost, we didn’t play our game and weren’t ourselves, that was the most painful thing, and we wanted to show a different side and we definitely did,” the Norwegian told Sky Sports.
Chelsea lost for the 6th time in six games in all contests since break mentor Blunt Lampard supplanted Graham Potter last month, a bleak run for a delegated European club champions as of late as quite a while back.
However, in the 65th minute, Noni Madueke scored his first goal since joining from PSV Eindhoven in January by squeezing the ball past Aaron Ramsdale, making it only their second goal in eight games.
Chelsea’s U.S. proprietors, who have showered more than 500 million pounds ($623 million) on players since purchasing the club very nearly a year prior, are supposed to name previous Tottenham Hotspur supervisor Mauricio Pochettino as their new long-lasting mentor for next season.