Martin Odegaard: The Arsenal captain adds goals to his game as Mikel Arteta helps unlock his scoring potential.

With his opener in Arsenal's win over Newcastle on Sunday, which he drilled low into the bottom corner from 25 yards out, Martin Odegaard took his goal tally to 15 in the Premier League this season.

It is the most by an Arsenal midfielder since Cesc Fabregas hit the same total in 2009/10 and puts him behind only five players, all of them forwards, in this year's scoring charts. Take out penalties, and it is more than even Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard ever managed.

It is a remarkable haul that reflects a dramatic change in the 24-year-old's game. Before this season, Odegaard had never reached double figures for goals in a league campaign. A creator, yes. But not a natural scorer. Or, at least, that's how it seemed.

His contribution this term, which includes five goals in his last five games, demands a reassessment. Odegaard is Arsenal's joint-top scorer alongside Gabriel Martinelli. He has found the net more than twice as many times as he did in the whole of last season.

It is little wonder that comparisons with Kevin de Bruyne are gaining traction. Excluding Erling Haaland, Odegaard is probably the Belgian's closest competitor for the PFA Player of the Year award.

But none of this has happened by accident. In fact, Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff have been working to develop Odegaard's goal threat ever since his arrival at the club two years ago.

The priority was to get him playing higher up the pitch.

"I think now he's more comfortable doing that than when he joined, because he was all the time playing in deeper roles, getting the ball in deeper areas," Arteta told Sky Sports last year.

"He was more comfortable facing the play from those positions than being in advanced positions. But that's the work we have been doing with him. In my opinion, that's where he can be best for the team."

The shift has happened gradually and can be seen when comparing his heat maps for the last three seasons. From one campaign to the next, his involvement in Arsenal's build-up play has declined, meaning less time in his own half and more in the opposition's.

The process was accelerated by the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko in the summer, with the inverted left-back effectively acting as an additional deep-lying midfielder when Arsenal are in possession, in turn allowing Arteta to narrow Odegaard's remit.

But it has also required a change in mindset from the player himself. As Arteta put it in his press conference after the recent 3-1 win over Chelsea, "He needed to have the mentality to win matches, not just to control games. I think that's changed."

It can be seen in his numbers for shots and expected goals as well as his actual goals scored.

This season, Odegaard is attempting nearly twice as many shots as he did in his first campaign at Arsenal. He is generating more than three times as many goals as expected per 90 minutes.

His touches in the box have increased dramatically, too. This season, he is averaging 3.8 per 90 minutes, an increase from roughly 2.2 per 90 minutes in the previous two campaigns.

His goal against Newcastle, almost identical to the one he fired past Hugo Lloris in Arsenal's 2-0 win over Tottenham in January, was a reminder of his threat from long range. Odegaard has scored five goals from outside the box since the start of last season.

But it is inside the box that his transformation as an attacking force is most apparent.

Odegaard, already a master in terms of his vision and appreciation of space when seeking to break teams down, is now demonstrating the same qualities in the final action.

Consider the fact that his shot percentage from inside the box has risen from 40 percent to 52 percent this season and that nine of his 15 Premier League goals in the current campaign have been dispatched for the first time from inside the area.