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 this afternoon’s game against Leicester City, he reflects on his pride at watching our display at Manchester City, how we have to sometimes suffer to get what we want, and what we need to do to be successful against the Foxes. Here’s a snippet:
I want to start by saying how proud I was of the whole team in our last Premier League game against Manchester City. After everything that happened during the game, we worked so hard and did so well in a really difficult situation.
We had a tough start to the game with the early goal we conceded, but then for the second part of the first half, we changed the game. We controlled everything better and took over, started to dominate them more, and took the lead. Then the red card changed the whole game, so the way we defended after that in the second half, against one of the best attacking teams in the world of the past few years, away from home, with 10 men – it was just amazing.
It was unreal to watch how much effort every single one of our players put into it, an incredible performance, and we were very unlucky in the end not to hold on. It went to the last kick of the game basically, but in terms of everything that happened, I think there were a lot of strong points for us to take from it.
Obviously we wanted to win it, and there were mixed emotions at the final whistle, but the main takeaway from us should be to be proud of the performance. We are not going to face any tougher situations than that this season, so that should give us confidence too, knowing what we are capable of, in even the most difficult moments. We have to take the positives, and look at how far we’ve come.
Every team that wants to be successful needs to be able to dominate in different ways. Of course we want to have the ball and to put our opponents under pressure, but when that isn’t possible, then we need to find another way too, even if that means you have to suffer. One of the key things for me was that we didn’t let our frustration get to us after the red card decision – it was tough to watch at home! But the character the players and staff showed from that moment, to get on with the job and keep their minds on the right thing was brilliant.
We need to follow up all the hard work we’ve put into our recent games with another strong performance today against Leicester. Every week the Premier League reminds you that as soon as you switch off for one second, you will be punished.
We know that, and the only way to be successful in this league is to be fully focused from the first whistle until the last. We will need you all behind us again as usual at home – make it noisy again inside the stadium today!
