Arsenal are a better team when Martin Ødegaard plays. No doubt about it. But this season, the skipper hasn’t quite hit the heights of the previous two campaigns. He added to his tally with two goals and an assist in Tuesday’s 7-1 demolition of PSV Eindhoven, but he knows he hasn’t been as efficient or influential in the final third as he could be.
Why that is remains up for debate. The ankle injury that kept him out for two months certainly didn’t help, though he initially bounced back well.
The absence of key teammates — particularly Bukayo Saka and Ben White, with whom he has a strong on-pitch connection — has been a factor, too. Then there are Arsenal’s disciplinary issues, and even softer elements, like the fact he recently became a father.
Ahead of Sunday’s clash with Manchester United, Ødegaard reflected on his form in an interview with the [club’s official website](https://www.arsenal.com/news/odegaard-take-good-feeling-old-trafford): “To be honest I’m very used to people speaking about me and judging my performances.
“But I think I do that, I’m very hard on myself and I know I haven’t been good enough, especially in front of goal.
“So that’s normal, I work hard every day to improve it and I know I have the ability and talent to do it and this week was good and hopefully I can score more to end the season.”
With Liverpool’s relentless charge leaving Arsenal’s title hopes hanging by a thread, the Champions League is starting to feel like the real prize.
Assuming the Gunners see out the return leg against PSV, a quarter-final tie with either Atlético or Real Madrid awaits. Domestically, there’s also work to be done to make sure we’re back in the competition next season.
On chasing down the league leaders, Ødegaard remained pragmatic: “We have to do our job, we can only hope and win our games, then we will see what happens.
“Obviously we’ve put ourselves in a difficult position at the moment but we have to keep going, we have to try and win every time we play and we will see what happens with Liverpool, but I think the main thing is to focus on us and we can win the games.
“We will fight until the end, I think that’s the mindset of everyone, we’ve been fighting three years in a row for the title and a few years back we were leading with a lot of points and we ended second, so in football everything is possible, the main thing is just to keep going and keep working hard and day-by-day get better and win the games and we’ll see.”
Having carried this team at times over the last couple of years, the captain’s earned a bit of slack – even if he’s not giving himself any. That said, a big performance against Manchester United this afternoon wouldn’t go amiss. Here’s hoping Tuesday was the start of a strong finish to the season for our midfield maestro.