Mikel Arteta wants more goals from midfield and Arsenal delivered against Dinamo Zagreb

Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ ringing around the Emirates after Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb was fitting. Declan Rice’s lovely half-volley set them on their way to almost guarantee a top-eight finish in the Champions League’s league phase, missing a potential extra two play-off matches to reach the round of 16.

It also provided a glimpse of what Mikel Arteta wants to see in the second half of this season; more goals from midfield.

“Today he (Rice) could have scored two goals,” Arteta said, reflecting on a second-half header the England international sent wide. “In the last weeks, he had some big open chances to score and affect the game. Overall I’m delighted because we need to affect the game from those positions and he’s certainly capable of doing it.”

While Rice opened the scoring inside two minutes, fellow midfielder Martin Odegaard completed the victory by converting a Leandro Trossard cross in added time. It was the club captain’s second goal of the season, and his first since a penalty against West Ham United on November 30 (15 games).

Martin Ødegaard crowns an excellent Arsenal performance with their third goal ©️

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Goals from midfield have been vital for Arsenal in recent seasons. They severely lacked threat from that position after Aaron Ramsey’s 2019 departure, with Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos mustering just four goals between them in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

That production line returned in the 2021-22 campaign, with Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe’s contributions key to Arsenal’s qualification for the Europa League that year. Smith Rowe scored 11 (14.5 per cent) of Arsenal’s goals that year, excluding own goals, while Odegaard netted seven (9.2 per cent). Arsenal embarked on their first title race the following year, scoring 98 times in all competitions — Odegaard getting 15 (15.3 per cent) and Xhaka nine (9.2 per cent).

Arteta’s midfielders were chipping in consistently, and that continued into last season. Arsenal scored 108 goals across all competitions, with Odegaard contributing 11 (10.2 per cent) and Rice seven (6.5) in his debut season. Rice’s goal against Dinamo Zagreb was his third of this season, accounting for 4.5 per cent of Arsenal’s 66 total goals so far, while Odegaard’s two represent three per cent of the share.

(In the table below, grey is Smith Rowe, red is Xhaka and blue is Rice).

Kai Havertz has shouldered most of that burden this year, equalling his goal tally from last season (14) with his header to make it 2-0. Even so, Arteta has known he would need more from the wider playing group.

“He (Rice) needs that (rest) like the others,” the Arsenal manager said about his management of Rice’s minutes around the turn of the year. “Sometimes it’s related to freshening up, and sometimes to say ‘we need another level’. If not, somebody else is going to be there, so everybody has to be on their toes. Dec is not different to that. You can see that when he’s fresher and in the condition he is, he’s a big player for us.”

A few factors played into how Rice was used over the festive period, when he was on the bench twice and was not involved in a matchday squad once. The midfielder had missed the November international break and Arsenal’s first game back against Nottingham Forest with a broken toe but has also played non-stop for the past few years. The 26-year-old made 130 appearances for club and country across the past two full seasons and, like injured team-mate Bukayo Saka, was back starting on the opening day of this campaign after helping England reach the European Championship final in the summer.

His performances have been steadily improving since his return, with Arteta adding: “His intent, his purpose, especially in attack. The positions he’s taking, how he’s driving with the ball — there is another bite to his game. The good thing with Dec is that he’s so conscious and so reliable. When he can create those sparks in the opposition box, it’s a great thing to have.”

Aside from his goals, that bite has been seen in his ability to cover ground both with and without the ball in a similar way to when he first joined Arsenal 18 months ago.

The first half of Odegaard’s season was far from straightforward either. After an initially impressive return from a two-month ankle injury, the Norway midfielder’s form regressed. Off the field, he was getting to grips with the demands of being a first-time father and also suffered an illness at the turn of the year. His playmaking has improved in recent weeks, but he was craving a goal.

Compared to seasons past, he seemed to be deliberating too much in front of goal. Before Christmas, he dragged two almost identical shots wide in the space of three days against Monaco and Everton. At the start of 2025, the time taken before shooting gave his efforts less chance of troubling goalkeepers and he also had a penalty to put Arsenal ahead in the FA Cup tie against Manchester United saved.

“You could just tell by the reaction of Martin how much that goal meant for him,” Arteta said. “We know in the last two seasons when we scored that many goals, how many were shared. Hopefully now we go on and that’s going to happen very often.”

Whether or not a forward is brought in during the January window, this was one clear area of improvement for Arteta’s existing players. Another was that the wingers stepped up in Saka’s absence. With an assist each against Dinamo Zagreb, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard have built on their positive performances against Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa last week.

Now Wolves away will provide Rice, Odegaard and co a chance to join them in maintaining that momentum at the start of a week in which they travel to Girona and then host Manchester City.

(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)