Napoli 0-1 Arsenal: result and report

Report

Arsenal won 1-0 away to Napoli, though the scoreline makes this look far closer than it was. Arsenal had almost all of the football that mattered. Even so, they needed until the 75th minute to turn it into a goal.

Martin Ødegaard scored the only goal on 75 minutes, set up by Christos Tzolis. Until then Napoli had held out despite long spells under pressure.

Ødegaard was named player of the match. While his goal decided it, the wider story is how much Arsenal created around it.

Arsenal's chances against the scoreline

Arsenal finished with 3.62 xG to Napoli's 0.31, so a one-goal margin badly understates the gap between the sides. They had 19 shots to Napoli's four and eight on target to three. They also made 23 key passes to Napoli's four.

The pressure figures tell a similar story. Arsenal's pressure was constant, while Napoli's barely registered. This was not a game that swung back and forth. It was Arsenal attacking and Napoli trying to hold on.

Napoli: hanging on

The one real counter-signal is Arsenal's finishing. They created five big chances and missed all five, which is why Napoli stayed in the game for so long. Napoli also made six saves, so Arsenal were repeatedly kept out rather than simply wasteful every time.

Still, Napoli's own attack offers little comfort. They did not create a single big chance. Their total xG was a fraction of what Arsenal managed, so any hope of a point depended on Arsenal's misses rather than Napoli's threat.