‘Incredible’: Arteta says only one Arsenal player was not ‘trembling’ yesterday

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta faced the media yesterday after his side came back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 against a very good West Ham side.

The Gunners were woeful in the first 30 minutes of the game. The Hammers completely dominated us and if we had continued the same way, we would’ve conceded five before half-time.

Thankfully, we woke up. Alexandre Lacazette’s fierce strike deflected off Tomas Soucek and ended up in the back of the net. We could’ve scored another goal before half time, but Bukayo Saka’s finishing let him down.

It looked like Arteta had a real go at the break and the game changed completely in the second half. We absolutely battered them and Martin Odegaard was at the heart of every one of our attacks.

The Arsenal boss was asked about the Norwegian’s display and he claimed that Odegaard was the only Arsenal player who showed some composure when every one of his teammates were trembling.

He said, as per Arsenal.com: “I think he had an incredible performance, he was very intelligent the way he read the game, the way he affected the game and again he showed how much he wants to win.

“When everyone was a little bit trembling, he gave us that composure on the ball and he created chance after chance.”

Arsenal Insider’s view:

Odegaard was absolutely phenomenal yesterday.

The Real Madrid man ran the show and not one person would’ve been surprised if he pipped Calum Chambers to win the ‘man of the match’ award.

Odegaard has settled in really well and he is proving to be an incredible addition. Arteta would undoubtedly love to sign him up on a permanent deal, but his recent performances would surely have increased his value, and that will likely complicate things for us this summer.