Every home game, Martin Odegaard gives you his thoughts on the goings-on around the club in his captain’s notes for the matchday programme.
Ahead of our meeting with Sheffield United, Martin discusses our three most recent matches, his disappointment on international duty, and he mentality we need to find against the Blades this afternoon.
It was so important to finally beat Manchester City in the league. We have been close a few times lately, and we beat them in the Community Shield too, but this one felt very important. It was about time we did it, and after what happened at the end of last season it felt really good. By beating them it gives us extra confidence, especially knowing that we haven’t beaten them for a while in the league. It gives us a good feeling, which we can take into our matches going forward.
It was a great way for us to go into the international break, but unfortunately for Norway we didn’t get the result we needed against Spain to stay in the race to qualify for Euro 2024. To be honest though, we didn’t lose it in that game – it was in the earlier results against Georgia away, and especially at home to Scotland. That’s where we lost it.
It's a big frustration because we haven’t played at a major tournament since 2000, so this was always a big goal, and we didn’t manage to get there. We wanted to break that run, but it wasn’t our time. Who knows, we could still have some luck and get into the play-offs. That’s our last hope, but it now depends on other results.
We fought back well to get a point away at Chelsea, but I think everyone on the pitch felt that we weren’t at our best that day. We showed really good character and fight to get us a point, but it was not a great performance from us – especially in the first half. To get a point against a strong team with a lot of quality players, away from home in a London derby, when we were not at our best, is a good sign.
When it’s not your day, make sure you still get a result. You can’t play beautiful football every time.
It was better to go to Spain and get three points in the Champions League against Sevilla on Tuesday. We spoke before the game about dealing with the atmosphere there, learning from the Lens game, and using it to our advantage.
It was a mature performance in a big away game in Europe. Spanish teams can use lots of tricks to make things difficult, but we were ready for that and we got a really important win. It puts us in a great position in the group, especially with two home games coming up that we have to make the most of.
Today we face Sheffield United and despite their position in the table we know we have to treat this as a Champions League game as well. That’s the mindset we need, because every team in the Premier League will give you a big fight.
Read the rest of Martin's notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying a copy of the Arsenal v Sheffield United programme either around the stadium or online.
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