Martin Odegaard revealed that Thomas Partey’s wonderful strike that opened the scoring in the 3-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur was something straight off the training ground.
The Ghanaian lashed home an inch-perfect curling effort from 25 yards out 20 minutes into the north London derby to put us on our way to victory, which was his first goal in our colours from outside the box.
However, the skipper revealed that Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff had expected Partey to be allowed time and space by our opponents, and had worked on creating that shooting opportunity which was executed to perfection.
Speaking post-match, Martin said: “It was a great goal. We knew before the game he was going to be free in those areas and we practised that a lot, to find him in those areas, and he made a great shot.
"I think he played a great game as well so a lot of credit to him, and of course the team.”
After Harry Kane’s penalty set us back, Gabriel Jesus struck just four minutes after the restart which Martin felt was a massive turning point in proceedings and provided us with the springboard to seal the victory when Granit Xhaka struck home a third.
Reflecting on the key moment, he added: “I think it was crucial. We dominated the game from the start but they scored out of nothing and it was important to strike back and get the momentum again and the energy, so I think it was crucial to get the second goal.
“From that moment I think we controlled the game again and it was a solid win in the end. It’s always nice when you get two goals up and then after that when they had one man less we could keep the ball and I think they suffered a lot.”
Not suffering after this result are our supporters, who will be celebrating right across the world after reclaiming the derby day bragging rights, and Odegaard is thrilled he and his teammates could repay their support with a suitable result.
“That’s who we play for - the fans,” he said. “We know how much they help us, we know how much they believe in us now and we want to give them something back. All the games this year they’ve been amazing and it’s nice to give them this win back.
“It was a top, top atmosphere and I just have to say thank you to the fans for all their support this year and for this game - it was amazing to play out there.”
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