Troy Deeney names two Arsenal starters who can still ‘offer more’ | Football

Troy Deeney has been impressed by Arsenal so far this season but thinks there are still players in Mikel Arteta’s team who could ‘offer more’.

The Gunners have got off to a brilliant start this campaign, winning the Community Shield, their first three Premier League games and now their Champions League opener after beating Napoli on Wednesday night.

Captain Martin Odegaard continued his fine form by scoring the only goal of the game in Italy, but Deeney still wants to see more from Arsenal’s other attacking players.

He reckons the Norwegian is doing all he can at the moment, but Bukayo Saka and Christos Tzolis still have more they can show.

The former Premier League striker admits he is nit-picking here, though, given how relentless Arsenal have been in winning games.

‘The one thing that Arsenal will always be under Mikel Arteta is that goal against. Really difficult to score against,’ Deeney said on CBS Golazo.

‘One goal conceded. Four clean sheets already in five games. They’ve got the basis and the foundation to always improve.

‘The hard part of being so good defensively solid is, do you then go, “right, let’s kick on and try and score loads more?” But if you do that, you open yourself up for transition, which is what he doesn’t want to happen.

‘They transition on teams better than most in world football. So, I see a freedom and a carefreeness and maybe Odegaard is the epitome of that. But again, really, really, really picky, like the 1 per cent now is, you’d like to see more in the final third. You really would.

‘You feel like Saka can offer you more. You feel like Odegaard is probably the only one who’s raised his game. Tzolis on the left-hand side can offer you more.

‘You just feel like there’s more within it, but they get the job done. They don’t really concede goals and they win and they know how to win.
So, fair play to them.’

Saka and Tzolis have looked in pretty good form so far this season, with the Greek providing an assist for Odegaard on Wednesday, while Saka scored in Premier League wins over Coventry City and Aston Villa.

Nonetheless, Deeney thinks they can do more and play with the kind of freedom that Odegaard has been exhibiting.

On whether Arsenal look different to last season, the former Watford captain said: ‘I’m not seeing a massive difference. I’m seeing a freedom, like a weight off their shoulders, especially with Odegaard. I think he’s the one who embodies that.

‘Maybe being the captain, if you think back to last year, the start of last year, question marks from legends like Tony Adams saying that Declan Rice should be the captain. There was a real big story and noise swirling around that. But since they’ve won the league, he went to the World Cup, he’s been fantastic.

‘And he started this season now, he’s added goals back to his game because there was a lot of talk about it. A lot of things he did, setting the press off, working hard for his team, runs around a lot, but no real value in assists and goals. And now he’s turned that around.’

Odegaard feels like the whole team is operating on a higher level to last season, having landed the Premier League title.

‘I think we feel different. I think we feel a lot stronger this year and I’ve said it many times,’ the Gunners captain told CBS Sports. ‘I said it also after the season when we finished second, you got to learn from it. You got to take the experiences.

‘And of course it’s the same when you win and it’s a different experience. It gives you different kind of confidence. And I can feel that now in the whole team– we play with a different confidence and I feel like we’re on another level this season.

‘I think it made us a lot stronger and I feel like the team is just growing and growing and we’re getting better and the hunger is there. So that’s great to see after winning that we want to do it again and we want more.’

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