Odegaard on form, cup dreams and No More Red

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 today's game against Liverpool, the skipper reveals his disappointment of ending 2023 with two losses, his desire to get his hands on the FA Cup and the No More Red campaign:

We were all disappointed with how we ended with the last two matches in 2023 and we know we will have to raise our level when we take on Liverpool today.

The FA Cup is a huge tournament, we’ve won it more than any other team, so we want to be strong in the competition again, and starting at home is exactly what we wanted. It’s a very tough opponent of course, we know a lot about them from playing at Anfield a couple of weeks ago, and this time with our own supporters behind us we will be ready and looking forward to it.

I watched a lot of English football growing up, and so I know about the history of the FA Cup and how special it is, getting to Wembley and everything that goes with it. As I said, we’re all desperate to win trophies as a team, and individually as well you have to take those chances when they come along in your career. So we want to start that journey today, and see how far it can take us.

The last time we won the FA Cup was a few months before I came to the club, but I remember watching that Covid final at an empty Wembley. Auba scored both goals that day as captain I remember, and it would be amazing to go back to Wembley with this team, with a full crowd there this time.

We played there in the Community Shield this season which was an amazing experience for us, and now the target is to go all the way in the FA Cup, to keep building the history of this club. We can’t think of anything like that though unless we get the win today. Liverpool will have the same thoughts as us of course, and we know we need to be at our best to get the win we want.

Today we’ll be wearing our white No More Red kit for the third consecutive year and the first time at home. Building on nearly four decades of our work in our community, the action behind No More Red helps to keep young people safe from knife crime and youth violence by providing safe spaces to play sport, access to role models and more opportunities for young people. It’s an important campaign and we’ll be proud to pull on the white shirt today.

Read the rest of Martin's notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying a copy of the Arsenal v Liverpool programme either around the stadium or online