Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal star Martin Odegaard showed ‘hunger and desire’ in Wednesday’s 3-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb.
The Gunners cruised past the Croatian side in their penultimate league phase match at the Emirates to all-but directly qualify for the last 16.
The goals came from Declan Rice, who had objects thrown at him by visiting fans, as well as Kai Havertz and Gunners captain Odegaard.
It was Odegaard who grabbed the last goal in the 91st minute and Arsenal manager Arteta decided to single him out for praise after the match.
‘The goal from Martin [Odegaard] was really good, he really needed that,’ Arteta told TNT Sports.
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‘You could see by the way he celebrated he had that hunger and desire.’
Arteta’s praise for Odegaard comes after the Norway international faced criticism from football pundit Jamie Carragher on Monday, who said that the 26-year-old needed to be ‘braver’ in attacks.
Odegaard was quizzed about the pressure on him and Declan Rice to get forward after the victory over Dinamo Zagreb and said: ‘[Arteta’s] always pushing us to be better and we want goals from the midfielders.
‘I haven’t been good enough there this season. Finally got a goal today so that was good and we spoke a lot about being in the right areas to attack that space.’
Arteta, meanwhile, has already got one eye on Arsenal’s next match as they travel to Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday, looking to get back to winning ways after a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa and get their title challenge back on track.
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‘It’s a crucial month,’ the Spaniard added. ‘We have nine games in this period, a tough period.
‘We’re happy with today, but we have to go to Wolves and know how difficult that will be.
‘Then three days later we go to Girona, and then Manchester City. We go game by game, make sure we recover and we go again.’
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