Odegaard on Liverpool challenge

Every home game, Martin Odegaard gives you his thoughts on the goings-on around the club in his captain’s notes column for the matchday programme. 

Ahead of today's game against Liverpool, you can read a snippet of the skipper's latest column:

Being top of the table helps your confidence, but it also creates a big buzz and feel-good factor around the club. Personally, I’ve noticed the lift in the atmosphere at games since the end of last season, and it’s got even better this season. It’s improving all the time, we’re playing well and the supporters are certainly playing their part in it too.

There are positive vibes around the club, and it’s not just the men’s team. I’ve been following our women’s team so far this season and saw their big win over Tottenham as well. The club is doing a lot of things right in a lot of different areas, which is really good to see. 

I was very happy for Granit last week when he won our player of the month award – he really deserves that and he’s started the season so well. Everyone knows he’s had to go through some tough moments at the club but all of us here see how hard he works every day in training. He’s always been like that and now it’s great to see him get recognition for that work in the games as well. I think he’s at his best again now, he’s getting support from the fans and you can see what effect that has on the pitch. He has a crucial role for us in the team and everyone can see his importance at the moment.

Now our challenge is to keep our league run going against Liverpool today – another big test for us in the Premier League. It’s a special one for me too, as when I was younger my dad was a big, big Liverpool fan. A lot of my family grew up supporting Liverpool in fact, and my brother is here today watching us – but of course he supports Arsenal now, there’s no doubt about that!

I remember watching Liverpool at home as a kid, and players like Steve Gerrard. Also John Arne Riise of course, I was only young when he was at Liverpool, but I remember the big goals he scored and his famous free-kicks too. He’s a huge name in Norwegian football – he holds the record for most appearances for the Norway national team, he won the Champions League at Liverpool too, so he had a big career and was somebody I looked at for sure.

This current Liverpool side is obviously a very strong team too, and this is another challenge for us today. 

What Liverpool have done over the last few years speaks for itself and although they haven’t started as well this time as they have in previous seasons, their squad is full of quality. They have had a few injuries this season, but those players are coming back and this is another huge test for us today at the Emirates.

Liverpool could be dangerous as well today because they will be desperate to show that they should be higher up the table. We’ve got to be ready for that – when teams feel they have something to prove, that can lift them, so all we expect today is a big battle and a huge test.

We’re at the top of the table, so teams will be even more motivated against us to show their qualities. It’s up to us to rise to that and play our game, keep performing as we have been, and hopefully, we can get another good result here at home like we did last weekend.

Read the rest of Odegaard’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, and you can also purchase a seasonal subscription to get every issue through your door.