Before every game at Emirates Stadium, Martin Odegaard lifts the lid on the mood in the camp via his captain’s notes published in the matchday programme.
Ahead of our return to Premier League action against Bournemouth, Martin chats about learning from the Carabao Cup final loss, his return to the first-team and the intense Parchis tournament he and the squad are enjoying! Here is a snippet:
Every single game is big at the moment, in every competition. When you get to April and May in the Premier League, that’s when things are decided.
It’s great to be back here at Emirates Stadium again today, it’s a strange feeling not to play a league game for so long, but that has just made us all even more excited to be back in action. It’s been a while and we want to carry on where we left off against Everton.
Bournemouth are a very strong team, they have shown that throughout the season, and especially recently while they are on a long unbeaten run. They always have a really clear game plan and the coach is clearly very good at getting what he wants from his players. It seems like they’re really together as a group and they all know what they have to do on the pitch. Obviously there is a lot of quality there too, so that explains the results they have had lately. I think that’s just the level of the Premier League now though. Every team is good, well-organised and play good football in different styles. Everyone has their own identity and Bournemouth have a clear one. We’ll have to be ready for that.
Since my last programme notes, we had the Carabao Cup final, which was a hugely disappointing afternoon for all of us. I tried so hard to be fit for that game, but in the end I didn’t make it. I was fighting my way back, but I wasn’t quite ready. It was very frustrating to miss out, but I had to get my body right. I was at Wembley though of course, and it was a game of two different halves I’d say.
The important thing now is to take the lessons from that game, move forward and use them in the right way from now until the end of the season. There are a few things we could have done better and we know that. We spoke about that as a group after the international break, and analysed the situation we are in, how well we have done this season and what we still have to fight for.
On a personal level I was happy to be back in the team for the Southampton game as I had been out for a while. I felt good back on the pitch. I did a good job during my rehab to stay fit, so from that point of view I felt good. Obviously it’s different with game time. Game rhythm always takes a bit more time, but after being out that long, and considering everything I’ve been through this season, I felt really good. I worked hard to come back in a good state physically and I thought I did that well.
Finally, an update on the Parchis tournament that’s been going on between a few of us when we travel to away games. We played it in the hotel in Lisbon this week, and myself and Kai are beating Leo and Ben at the moment – it’s getting quite serious!
Thanks for your brilliant support over the last few weeks, from Wembley to Southampton and Portugal – we really appreciate it, and love hearing you so loud and clear wherever we travel. Get right behind the team again today, and let’s do it together.
Read the rest of Martin’s notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying the Arsenal v Bournemouth programme either around the stadium or online.
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Learn Odegaard’s captaincy style in Modern Leader
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