It might be a bit of an exaggeration to say that Arsenal’s title hopes are over at the start of November, but it does feel like their chances of winning the Premier League prize are very slim.

That is a crazy thing to say, especially since they are only four points behind Manchester City.

Martin Odegaard came back into the starting group for the 1-1 draw and played brilliantly, especially setting up Gabriel Martinelli’s first goal.

Since he got hurt, the team hasn’t had much creativity. His comeback is a huge boost for them.

Martin Odegaard’s work broken down by numbers

There is a lot of worry every time there is a foreign break. What will happen if one of our stay players gets hurt? Well, Mikel Arteta has seen both Odegaard and Bukayo Saka limp off the field during the last two breaks for local games.

Odegaard’s trouble, with his ankle, was much worse than Saka’s muscle injury, which is why he hasn’t been able to play for about two months.

The north Londoners have had a hard time making chances and scoring goals since then. That’s been clear since the last international break more than ever.

They failed to score against Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Inter Milan. In the Champions League, they only scored once against Shakhtar.

Odegaard’s absence is a big part of the reason for that. Leandro Trossard has been picked a lot, but his performance as a defender has dropped off a lot in recent weeks. He hasn’t set up a single Premier League goal this season, which says a lot.

So, it’s hard to believe that Ethan Nwaneri has still not made his first league start. He played a great cameo against Inter last week, showing more than the Belgian has ever shown in a central part. The remarkable skill of the 17-year-old was shown by the way he turned Stefan de Vrij late in the San Siro game before taking a shot.

He will still have to wait because the club captain is back and this time he means business. He came in for Trossard in the starting lineup at Stamford Bridge and was Arteta’s best player without a doubt.

He made four important plays, more than any other player on the field. The most important was the one that set up Martinelli’s goal. They had missed that moment of play a lot over the last few months. The Norwegian hit a beautiful high ball to the back post out of the blue, where the Brazilian controlled it and shot past Robert Sanchez.

It may have come as a surprise that Odegaard played the whole game, but he had to because there is no one else like him on the team.

It even looked like good news for Mikel Merino, who joined Chelsea in the summer but has had a rough first few months in north London.