Norse raiders Haaland and Odegaard fly flag in Premier League title race

In late October 2020, at Olso’s Ulleval Stadium, Norwegian patriots saw a plan come together beautifully.

The national team were playing Romania. They won handsomely. Better still the country’s celebrated young centre-forward scored two of the night’s four goals direct from passes from the midfielder who had been feted even longer than Erling Haaland as a generational talent.

Martin Odegaard’s assist for the first was sumptuous, a through-ball gauged to Haaland’s strengths – acceleration, power and a jackhammer of a left foot.

The pass to set up Norway’s third was simpler, but executed coolly, anticipating Haaland’s uncanny instinct to be in the right place to poach from close range.

One day, Norwegians imagine, this combination of Odegaard and Haaland will shine on an elevated tournament stage. So far, the fact that a relatively small country – population around 5.5 million – boasts two of football’s finest young talents has not been shown off at a European Championship or a World Cup. But there is plenty of time. Haaland turns 23 in July, Odegaard is 24.

Both are still improving and learning about intense pressure as they animate a tight contest for a league title in the richest, most watched domestic competition in the club game.

By the end of next month, one of these Scandinavian superstars will have claimed an English Premier League title. If it is Odegaard, he will be lifting the trophy as captain of Arsenal, who hold a five-point lead over Manchester City, where Arsenal play on Wednesday knowing that, given City have played two matches fewer, their advantage could fade fast.

If it is City’s Haaland, he will be adding the prize to several individual awards from his first season in English football: The Premier League’s top marksman is all but guaranteed; Footballer of the Year is very plausible.

Both were stars in their teens, hot-housed into the sport by fathers who had been professional players. Odegaard was exceptionally precocious, at the centre of an auction involving Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid before he turned 16.

Madrid won it, and, unfortunately for Odegaard, they were at the time bringing together a senior trio who would form the most enduringly excellent midfield of the last decade. No kid, however dazzling, was going to drive a wedge between Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro.

It meant Odegaard’s pathway to the top would not be through Madrid, but by a route that more resembled Haaland’s – judicious steps up through the hierarchy of European leagues. Haaland left Norway for Austria’s top division and RB Salzburg, then joined a Bundesliga club with a superb record for developing young talent, Borussia Dortmund.

Odegaard thrived in Dutch football, on loan from Madrid at Heerenveen and Vitesse, and, in another loan, at Real Sociedad, who like Dortmund, know how to maximise potential.

The big break came when Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, a former Real Sociedad player, heard positive reports of Odegaard, not only about his midfield vision but his impeccable professionalism. Two winters ago, Arteta hired him on loan, and soon made the deal permanent.

No Arsenal recruit has been more significant in Arteta’s own success in his first senior coaching job. When Odegaard made his Arsenal debut, the club sat in the bottom half of the Premier League; he will play his 100th Arsenal game on Wednesday with them top, as captain, and second only in goals (12) and assists (8) for the season to Bukayo Saka.

Those statistics represent Odegaard’s best return of his career. Haaland’s staggering 32 Premier League goals in 2022/23 are smashing records. He and his compatriot can both smile about the doubts that were whispered about them in their early months in England.

Arsenal 1 Man City 3: Player ratings

There were concerns, in early 2021, Odegaard might not have the steel Arsenal needed. But as City manager Pep Guardiola noted, he now leads by example a side who “play an aggressive game, man-to-man, all around the pitch. You have to challenge Arsenal on those terms. With the quality they have in the build-up, on the second balls. It’s difficult”.

Haaland, joining a City who had thrived without a conventional centre-forward, was initially mistaken for a square peg in a round hole. As City chase a treble, he looks ever more the piece that completes the jigsaw.

“When you look at the numbers, there’s no comparison with anybody else,” acknowledged Arteta, who expects, for fitness reasons, to be without two of his more muscular competitors, William Saliba and Grant Xhaka at the Etihad.

“With Haaland, City have the capacity to play in different ways. Playing far from your goal, they have the capacity to exploit open spaces. Attacking low blocks they have a different threat because they are now a very physical team.”

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