Players have bad seasons: it happens. Sometimes it can be explained, others it becomes incredibly difficult to make sense of; but the response to those players having a dip after what they have contributed is the tell of a club's following.
From an Arsenal perspective, the reaction to Martin Odegaard's season has become a worry and it came to a head after the draw with United. Now, this happens almost every season to somebody, and almost always those players turn it around.
Gabriel Magalhaes has become one of the league's best in his position and at one stage of his career, his own fan base was labelling him in unsavoury ways for mistakes that were just that of a player bedding in at a club and growing. There is simply an incessant desire to want to beat down on some players, but Odegaard being the target has an extra layer to it.
The fact that Odegaard wears the armband appears to rile some, and his below-expectation performances this season have been enough for some to suggest he should lose that responsibility. That is as much as I am going to acknowledge that ludicrous suggestion – just picture the headlines: 'Premier League title chaser axes club captain Martin Odegaard despite winning club player of the year in two of the last three seasons'.
Yes, that's right for those who may have forgotten: in the two highest point-collecting campaigns since the Invincibles, Martin Odegaard won the fan player of the season, voted for by the supporters. With 55% of the vote in 2022/23 and 33% in 2023/24.
In terms of numbers, Odegaard managed 11 goals and 11 assists last season. With less than a third of the campaign to go this time around, he has five goals and seven assists. It has been a dip, but the question is why?
Well, what some no doubt will label lazily as excuses are in fact legitimate explanations behind the form dropping. Individually, Odegaard suffered an ankle injury earlier in the campaign, meaning he missed around two months of action. He would return in good form before illness then interrupted his season once again.
He has had such great success as a creator at Arsenal, thanks to those around him. The right-hand side unit of Odegaard, Ben White and Bukayo Saka was, without doubt, the most threatening part of a side that would rack up back-to-back record-breaking seasons for goals.
However, Odegaard has played just 10 league games with Saka this season and just 10 games in the league with Ben White, although in some of those, the full-back only came on as a late substitute after recovering from a procedure on his knee. The right-hand side has been ripped apart and taken away from Odegaard.
Now, this is not a slight on Jurrien Timber or Ethan Nwaneri, but partnerships in a team that is all about collaboration are important. Plus, as the main creative force in the side and coming out publicly to admit in January the team was short, the club failed to deliver a striker.
Is Odegaard the classic British, no-nonsense club captain? No.
Is he the captain that has presided and heavily contributed to the club’s return to Premier League title consideration and relevancy with new highs in goal tallies and been a leader of the group during it? Absolutely.
Yet, the classic Arsenal scapegoat tagline appears to have fallen upon his shoulders. The man who so often is seen thrusting his arms into the air, calling for more noise, more support, and more faith from supporters in the ground, now finds the noise directed not with him, but at him.
Perhaps instead of this yearning to point fingers, we need to raise them up. If Arsenal are to win the biggest and best, they will need their top players operating at their maximum. And this might be just a guess, but at the first sign of a dip, calling to take away the captaincy might just not be the way forward. Just a hunch.