Today Martin Odegaard became the first Arsenal captain to lift the Premier League trophy since Patrick Vieira in 2004.
The Norwegian joins an august group of players to have led a team to the title, and despite the fact he’s had a difficult season with injury, his name – along with his teammates and the manager – is now etched into the history books for all time.
If there were difficult moments on a person level, there were some tricky ones for the team too, but Odegaard paid tribute to his teammates and the character they showed throughout the campaign.
Talking to Sky Sports after the trophy presentation, he spoke about finally going the distance after three second place finishes.
“You always have the doubt and the fear that you’re not going to make it,” he said, “but we had that belief in ourselves, and even in the toughest situations, toughest moments this season, I think we really, really stick together.
“Probably even more in those situations. So we had that belief, and we know we can, and we just kept on fighting, and we got there in the end.”
The 28 year old referenced the disappointments against Wolves and Bournemouth, but revealed the dressing room conversations were key to bouncing back from what were poor results for a team chasing the title.
“There were moments in the season when we felt really down and really angry, really frustrated,” he said.
“You say the Bournemouth game, you know, the Wolves game, there was some really, really tough moments for us, and I think the key was how we reacted.
“I think after those games, we spoke as a team. Everyone spoke up, you know, we said what we felt.
“Everyone was speaking, you know, it was a really honest conversation, and I think the way we reacted to every setback this season has been absolutely amazing.”
It was also put to him that Arsenal had to deal with a lot of external noise, particularly on social media, to which he replied, “For me personally, I don’t care what people say.
“It’s not like affecting me in any way, but you know it tastes good when you win it, and you can laugh back a little bit, you know?
“It tastes good.”
😋🏆