Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is looking to rally his team-mates ahead of this weekend's crunch trip to Anfield where Liverpool lie in wait for Mikel Arteta's Gunners
Martin Odegaard
Martin Odegaard came off the bench at half-time but couldn't inspire Arsenal to victory
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Martin Odegaard has urged Arsenal to drag themselves up off the canvas and put things right on Sunday at Liverpool.
The captain, whose half-time intervention helped the Gunners level things up through striker Viktor Gyokeres, said following his side's embarrassing Carabao Cup fourth round exit at Fleetwood Town : "We can't feel sorry for ourselves.
"We need to move on - we have a big game at the weekend, so bouncing back at the weekend is all we can do now. Massive thanks to the fans again for travelling - it’s a long journey - just thank you, and sorry for the result."
A whopping £1.15billion separated the two sides where squad value was concerned. It's the biggest ever chasm between two League Cup opponents in the competition's history.
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Odegaard is under no illusions that while Arsenal only had themselves to blame, Fleetwood deserve great credit. He added: "It's very frustrating to go out. Obviously, the way we’ve played was not up to the level. We need to do much, much better than we did today.
"Frustrating, but congratulations to Fleetwood and we look forward to the next game already and bounce back. They did well so we have to give them credit, but I think today was about us not being on our level, we need to do better. I thought we improved during the game, but again, we need to step up even more - so that’s a shame."
Fleetwood goalkeeper Jay Lynch later claimed Arsenal's stars did not take defeat well as none of The Codd Army's players were able to swap shirts with the Premier League winners.
Lynch said: "It’s obviously such a huge moment for us and all the fans ran on, no one actually got chance to speak to them. I think the gaffer spoke to their gaffer briefly, but because of all the fans we didn’t actually get a chance to ask for shirts or even speak to them or anything, to be honest. They didn’t take it well, let’s put it that way."
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
Arsenal had an evening to forget in Lancashire(Image: Nick Potts/Press Association)
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Still, Mikel Arteta also praised Fleetwood during his media huddle, stating: "First of all, congratulations to Fleetwood because they are through. In the manner that they've done it, the atmosphere they've created, I have nothing to fault the players for in terms of their attitude, application, the intensity that they put in throughout the game.
"After the goal that we conceded, they did it throughout the game, they did it with 11 players, with 10, so there is nothing there.
"But, when you are that superior, you give nothing to the opponent apart from the first action that we defended so poorly and we conceded the goal. And you generate so many situations, actions, volume of shots and chances in the opposition box.
"You have to score three, four or five and then you capitalise on that and you see the difference in the game. If you don't, then there are no margins and that's the reality."