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 Premier League encounter with Luton Town, the skipper discussed our point at Manchester City and where it leaves our title challenge, what the Hatters will pose in north London and where he stands fitness-wise ahead of a huge month.
It’s always a tough game against Man City, but that draw means we took four points from them this season, and we also took four from Liverpool.
It shows how much we have improved this season, especially if you compare our performance on Sunday to the game we played there last season. We have taken steps forward. I think we looked much more mature than we have done in these types of games before, so there are a lot of positives from that side too.
It’s very close at the top, and at the start of the season we spoke about how important our games would be against the top teams. Last season we lost both games to Manchester City, and those six points would have made all the difference in the final table. So if you look at the table now, we have taken the most points in that mini-league with Liverpool and Manchester City, but we are still behind, so that shows the importance of every single game throughout the season.
Facing Luton Town tonight is another example of that – these are the games we have to win and we can’t drop our level at all for any single game. We have to be right on it every single time. We have done well against the promoted teams so far this season, but you can only do that if you give everything, because we saw what Luton can do in the away game earlier this season.
They are a dangerous side. They are strong in the boxes and good with set pieces, so we will have to be at our best because this is another tough challenge. That away game gives you all the evidence there.
It looks like a busy month, but I’m feeling fresh, the fitness is good. We had a little break after the Porto game and then went away with the national team for a couple of games, so that was good to change the scenery before the end of the season. But my legs feel good, and at this stage of the season everyone is just so excited. It helps your recovery anyway when you have so many nice things still to play for.
It's down to us to make sure we are 100 per cent ready every time we play, push each other to perform and keep raising the level.
Read the rest of Martin's notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying a copy of the Arsenal v Luton programme either around the stadium or online
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