Arteta rages at Havertz, Madueke and Tzolis as Odegaard seals Arsenal win in Naples

Mikel Arteta publicly berated Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis on the touchline as Arsenal edged Napoli 1-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday, with Martin Odegaard’s 75th-minute strike securing a victory that extended the Premier League champions’ perfect start to the European campaign.

With Napoli pushing for a late equaliser, Arteta sprinted down the technical area to confront the three attackers after they failed to recover their defensive positions following an Arsenal attack. TNT Sports co-commentator Lucy Ward captured the moment in real time: “Mikel Arteta was absolutely raging on the sidelines that Havertz, Madueke and Tzolis weren’t recovering after that attack. It was so interesting. As the Arsenal attack finished, those three all sort of ambled back, and Mikel Arteta ran down the sidelines and shouted at them to recover.”

The incident came shortly after Arsenal spurned a chance to make it 2-0, a miss that left them vulnerable to the Italian side’s counter-attacks in the closing stages. Arsenal ultimately held on, but the narrow margin belied a performance in which they created numerous clear-cut opportunities.

Arteta was candid about the wastefulness in front of goal while insisting the result was fully merited. “We fully deserved the three points,” he said after the final whistle. “The performance probably doesn’t reflect the result — the team was superb. We showed quality in a lot of moments to break them down and it was a shame because we missed so many great chances. On any other day the result would be different. We should have done it in a different way because of the amount of chances we created, but we got the win in the end.”

Odegaard’s match-winning contribution drew particular praise from his manager. “Martin is contributing with goals that are impacting results, which is what we want from our attacking players,” Arteta said. “We want them to be decisive and certainly he was again today.”

The victory in Naples ranks among Arsenal’s more demanding away assignments in this season’s Champions League, though a trip to Bayern Munich still awaits later in the group stage.