Your team has hit a creative rut that coincided with the absence of your primary playmaker? Get him back and all your problems evaporate. So yes, the semi-frequent leaden-footed attacking, sterile possession and clumsy decision-making that reared its unfamiliar head at Arsenal over the last two months was nothing more than a team unable to cope without Martin Odegaard.

While Martin Odegaard is fit, Arsenal will feel they are still part of this season’s Premier League title race.It may have been Bukayo Saka and substitutes Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri who netted the goals against Nottingham Forest that secured a first League win in five games for the Gunners.

Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team "flows in a different way" when Martin Odegaard is playing after the Gunners crushed Nottingham Forest 3-0 on Saturday to end their winless run.The team flows in a different way when he is playing.

Martin Odegaard was back to his brilliant best as the free-flowing Gunners skipper helped inspire Mikel Arteta's side to a comfortable victory over high-flying Forest

Their first game back after the September international break was the north London derby against Tottenham. In his pre-match press conference, Arteta refused to rule his captain out entirely, saying simply, “Players with 48 hours to go are always available, but let’s see what happens.”