Arsenal’s captain, Martin Odegaard, was forced to leave the pitch during a match against Nottingham Forest due to what seemed to be a recurrence of his shoulder injury. The 26-year-old Norwegian midfielder appeared to injure his shoulder after an inadvertent tackle by Jurrien Timber on Morgan Gibbs-White.
Odegaard had been making his first start for Arsenal since August 13, when he initially injured his shoulder during the first half of Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over Leeds at home. Despite their skipper managing only 20 minutes in the following week’s match against Liverpool, which ended in a 1-0 defeat, Arsenal’s title hopes took a hit.
Following this, Odegaard played for 45 minutes in Norway’s 1-0 friendly win over Finland before playing the entire match against Moldova. The midfielder shone as Norway thrashed Moldova 11-1, with Odegaard scoring one goal and assisting two others.
Despite the injury concerns, Mikel Arteta did not hesitate to start Odegaard against Forest in Saturday’s early kick-off. However, the former Real Madrid prodigy lasted just 18 minutes.
During a challenge for the ball involving Timber and Gibbs-White, which Odegaard was also attempting to win, the Arsenal captain landed awkwardly on his right shoulder and immediately cried out in pain.
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After receiving treatment, Odegaard continued to play for another 10 minutes before being substituted. Ethan Nwaneri was brought on to replace him.
And shortly after, Martin Zubimendi broke the deadlock with a stunning first-time volley from the edge of the box.
Arsenal’s opponents had injury woes of their own as Murillo was forced off before half-time. The centre-back limped off, having tried to play on with pain following a challenge with Mikel Merino.
Nicolo Savona, brought in from Juventus for £13.5million last month, came on for his debut in a complete reshuffle for the visitors.
He moved to right-back, where Neco Williams was operating. The Welshman moved to left-back to try and handle the electric Noni Madueke, who had caused Morato all sorts of problems on Saturday lunchtime.
The 24-year-old took up Murillo’s spot at centre-back alongside Nikola Milenkovic as Ange Postecoglou tried to salvage anything out of his first game in charge.