Captain, our captain, where are you hiding? Martin Ødegaard was absolutely outstanding last season, leading Arsenal to two, three points from the Premier League title. This season, he would lead the Gunners all the way in. First came the injury to the Arsenal captain, fortunately back on the match scene in November after the team clearly did not do so well without the 26-year-old. But even with Ødegaard in charge, things won’t quite work out for Arsenal. Now English Goal asks “Martin Odegaard, where are you?!”
When Liverpool had to share points with Aston Villa at Villa Park, the Arsenal supporters saw their opportunity to close in on the lead and in practice threaten Liverpool’s journey to the Premier League title. The answer Arsenal supporters got from their team at the Emirates on Saturday was a 0-1 defeat to Potter and West Ham, who had not won a PL game in the last four. Yes, Arteta has a bunch of injuries and young Lewis-Skelly picked up a straight red card with almost half an hour left in the game, but by then West Ham were already leading 0-1.
English Goals “Martin Odegaard, where are you?!” article is based on what they believe is a captain who does not stand out like last season.
-Ødegaard was not only captain, but the best player on the pitch if everyone played to the maximum, but delivered less than expected. Much of Ødegaard’s work came from outside the 18-yard box – he only had three touches inside the box in almost 100 minutes of play – and although he officially created four chances, none of them made West Ham struggle. The Norwegian also took three shots, none of which were on target or close, the English media begins.
-Almost every time an opportunity presented itself to make an advance, he played to a less offensive player more often than not, to the defensive right-back Jurrien Timber. It’s OK to have bad games and “days off”, but this has been the story of Ødegaard’s season and was not an isolated game, writes the English media, where the comparison between this and last season should support the conclusion that Ødegaard in 2023/24 has been hiding away:
