Scholes Pinpoints Odegaard as Arsenal's Creative Bottleneck; Neville Warns Wright Over Eze's Arsenal Future

Arsenal's title charge has hit the rocks. After looking like they might finally end their long wait for a Premier League crown, Mikel Arteta's side have turned decidedly brittle. Two consecutive league draws followed by a damaging home defeat to Manchester United—ending a 13-game unbeaten streak—have left them just four points clear at the summit after 23 matches.

The attacking potency that once looked so fearsome has dried up considerably, and Paul Scholes reckons he's spotted the culprit. Speaking on The Overlap, the former Manchester United midfielder suggested that captain Martin Odegaard could be the very problem undermining Arsenal's goalscoring threat from open play.

"Odegaard could be the problem," Scholes explained, identifying the Norway international's positioning as the root cause. "Odegaard wants to play as a No.10, and if you're not playing good football it's his job to make your team play good football. Good attacking football. I don't think he does it."

The issue, according to Scholes, is Odegaard's tendency to drop deep into midfield rather than maintain his position where it matters most. "He drops into midfield. Look, I like him, technically he's brilliant and good to watch. But he drops into midfield," Scholes said. "I played No.10—if they come into the midfield area and play where Roy should be he'd say 'f*** off' get up there. He doesn't do it enough in those areas where it wins games."

Drawing comparisons to the winning sides of recent years, Scholes highlighted how Liverpool and Manchester City succeed through attacking players receiving the ball in dangerous areas. "They're exciting because of people like David Silva, Phil Foden receiving the ball on the edge of the box where it's important. It also kills the centre forward he's got nobody to play with. They are imperative to make your team play good football."

In separate comments on the same episode, Gary Neville offered a cautionary note to Arsenal legend Ian Wright regarding the club's reported signing of Eberechi Eze. With Eze's arrival imminent, Wright expressed optimism that the playmaker would be given licence to express himself in an Arsenal shirt, referencing Arteta's recent talk of encouraging player enjoyment.

"We're talking about someone like Eze, now Eze is coming in now and we're saying, 'Eze do your thing what you did at Palace', Eze needs to be played and just free to play," Wright suggested.

Neville, however, sounded a note of scepticism. "I don't think he's going to get that," the former United defender replied.

Wright pressed the point, referencing Arteta's stated emphasis on enjoyment and self-expression. But Neville remained unconvinced, drawing a line between Arteta's methods and the maverick approach that might suit a talent like Eze.

"He comes from that Pep Guardiola school of methodology over what would be being the maverick," Neville explained. "When I look at Pep's teams and what he did with Jack Grealish and when I see what Mikel does, you've got to admire how they put that system into the players, but they do want the methodology and the process of how you play to be followed over the individual."