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 evening's Champions League tie with PSG, he reflects on our Champions League opener against Atalanta, how the new format of the competition could affect things, and our epic game last time out against Leicester City. Here's a snippet:
It’s great to be back home in the Champions League again this season. We had some big nights here last season in the competition, and we’re desperate to create some more memories here again this year.
We started the league phase with a good point away to Atalanta. That’s a difficult place to go, because the way they play at home is very tricky. It’s a bit different to what we are used to, they basically play man-to-man all over the pitch and that’s what we saw a couple of weeks ago.
I think we started the game really well and then they made a few adjustments and started to come back into it. It was difficult for us at times, but again it was a case of ‘if you can’t win, then make sure you don’t lose’ and we have David Raya to thank for that. What an amazing save again! I was watching it at home and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any save like that before in my life! He’s been unreal since the start of the season, he’s in great form and again it shows the strength we have as a team, because we have so many different ways to get results now.
To go away to a tough place against a very strong team, it’s not the worst result in the first game. With the different format this season, playing eight games and being part of a big league, we don’t really know how good of a result that will be until later. That’s the same for everyone, it’s all new so we don’t know how it will look yet.
The new format doesn’t change anything for us as players though. Before in the Champions League, whoever or wherever we were playing, we wanted to get the win, and that’s exactly the same now. We go into every match wanting to win it, and we’re never happy if we drop points.
It’s always good to come into the match on the back of a good result too, and hopefully we can carry the momentum from our late win over Leicester into this game. I thought we did really well in the first half, we looked great going forward, controlled the game and could have scored more. But then Leicester caught us, and that’s a reminder to us all to give 100 per cent focus and energy from the very start of the second half, just as we do at the start of the game.
The start of the second half is always such an important moment in the match, but we were caught out on Saturday with Leicester scoring their goal. So the lesson is for everyone to be switched on from the first moment of the second half, together with your brilliant energy which always makes such a big difference.
Read the rest of Martin's notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying the Arsenal v PSG programme either around the stadium or online - or get a subscription to receive every edition through your door.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
