Martin Odegaard reveals how Arsenal got over frustration of recent performances
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has admitted the Gunners were frustrated in recent games against Leeds, Southampton and PSV Eindhoven and weren’t satisfied with their performances.
Mikel Arteta’s side narrowly beat Leeds in the Premier League in October, a game which also saw Patrick Bamford fail to convert a second half penalty. They were then ripped to shreds in the Europa League by PSV, although only two of five goals counted, before a 1-1 draw with Southampton.
Arsenal have since bounced back by thrashing Nottingham Forest 5-0 and topping their Europa League group with victory over Zurich this past Thursday.
The difference against Forest from the previous games was that the Gunners were able to build on the early goal scored by Gabriel Martinelli, which hadn’t been the case against Leeds or Southampton. Odegaard has revealed that prior failure has been a talking for the squad.
“We’ve been speaking about that as a group over the past few weeks,” the Norwegian explained in the club’s official matchday programme.
“We’ve had a few games where we’ve played well in the first half but the game has changed in the second half and we’ve been struggling more than we want to. Everyone was a bit frustrated, even after the win over Leeds, then the draw at Southampton and the defeat at PSV.”
In this edition of The Chronicles of a Gooner, Harry Symeou is joined by Dan Childs from Sons of Chelsea to preview the weekend's London derby, well as reflecting on the win over Zurich, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Mikel Arteta & more.
But even with such struggles, Odegaard is adamant it shows a lot that Arsenal were still picking up points and then were able to bounce back.
“It’s a sign of how this team is developing that we have had a couple of games where we weren’t at our best, yet we’re still on top in the Premier League and in Europe,” he said.
“Despite that, we weren’t totally happy with what we’ve been doing, and I think we showed that on the pitch against Nottingham Forest. We knew we had more to give and we wanted to do that.”