Odegaard on City and how our supporters can help

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 tonight's game against Manchester City, you can read a snippet of his latest column which includes the mood in the camp ahead of the big match, his thoughts on our opponents and how our support can help drive us on.

We’re all really excited for tonight’s game – these are exactly the sort of matches you want to be part of.

You want to play against the best teams and to do it here at the Emirates, on a night game under the lights, will make it even more special. There will be an amazing atmosphere inside the stadium, it should be a brilliant contest, so we’re all looking forward to it, and I can’t wait to get out there to be honest.

It feels like we’ve been building up to this one for a long time. We haven’t faced them in the league yet, and we know it’s an important game, but at the same time we have to approach it like we have done all season. It’s still only three points that are available, so let’s have the same mindset, the same focus that we always have going into a game, and concentrate on what we want to do.

We have to go out there and be ourselves, do what we always do, and realise this game is as important as all of the games in this league. That’s the way we need to look at it. We played against them in the cup recently of course, and we showed in that game that we can cause them problems, and do well against them.

I’ve watched City quite a lot this season and it looks like they have maybe changed their playing style a bit this year compared to previously. Maybe it’s a bit different to when we played them last season, and they have different threats now that we need to be ready for. It’s a strong team all round, everyone has a lot of quality, and most of them have been there for a long time, so they are used to playing together.

One of their new players this season is my Norway teammate Erling Haaland. We get on well off the pitch, and to be honest we have been in touch as usual this week. We don’t speak much about the games anyway, so nothing much has changed. We are in contact a lot, and this week has just been normal really for us – no more, no less.

Finally, I want to say again how important you, our supporters, can be for us tonight. If you can be there for us, like you have every game this season, it will be huge for us. It means so much to the team, and you give us so much extra when you are really into it and behind us. When the atmosphere is on fire inside here, it gives us a lot of energy and helps us a lot in the game. So if you can be as loud as possible, support us like you always do, then it will be brilliant for us, and together we can get the result we want.

Read the rest of Odegaard’s notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying a copy of the Arsenal v Manchester City programme either around the stadium or online, and you can also purchase a seasonal subscription to get every issue through your door.