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Ødegaard settles it as Arsenal come from behind to beat Chelsea

Two down inside two minutes, and it still finished 2-1 Arsenal. Morgan Rogers scored early for Chelsea, Kai Havertz levelled on 25 and Martin Ødegaard put it away five minutes into the second half, Havertz teeing him up. Three from three.

The opening half-hour was the best football at the Emirates in a while. Chelsea came in having scored freely under Xabi Alonso and Arsenal simply went with them rather than shutting the game down. That's not how this side usually wins these.

Ødegaard was the game. The Athletic makes the case that this is a genuine renaissance rather than a good afternoon, and having watched him instigate everything from first whistle to last, I'd go along with it. He's got three in all competitions already. Last season he spent months looking like a player managing his own body.

Havertz's numbers keep quietly stacking up too. Goal and assist, and level with Ødegaard at the top of the scoring.

So the striker question hasn't gone away, but it's harder to shout about after that. Nine points, five goals, and the attack is producing from midfield rather than waiting for a centre-forward to be signed. That was always the argument for standing pat. It's holding up so far.

Ezri Konsa's home debut deserves a mention. £51m plus add-ons from Villa, and he spent the afternoon winning duels against a front line that had been carving people open.

Arsenal Women beat Brighton 1-0 on Saturday, and the U18s saw off Southampton by the same score.

Napoli away on Wednesday. First proper test of whether the legs hold.



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