Before every game at Emirates Stadium, Martin Odegaard lifts the lid on the mood in the camp via his captain’s notes published in the matchday programme.
Ahead of today’s game against Kairat Almaty, Martin writes about our European season so far, the challenge of Kairat and his tips for Ethan Nwaneri before he joined Marseille on loan. Here is a snippet:
The Champions League is always great to play in, especially here at Emirates Stadium, and we have got the chance to do something very special tonight. We are in a great position after our strong win in Milan last week, and we know we will be a top seed for the next round now, with a game to spare.
We have put in a lot of work so far to be in this position, we’ve had impressive wins over some very strong sides – it’s a great position to be in and we really want to complete this stage with eight wins out of eight. That would be an amazing achievement. Let’s keep winning and keep building the momentum in this competition.
At the start of the season, we knew how important it would be to get a top-eight finish in the league phase, and now the rules have changed to ensure a home game in the second leg if you finish top, so that became a priority too for us. I think that’s great because we have experienced it both ways before, but personally I believe it’s better to be able to finish the tie here at Emirates Stadium, so let’s take advantage of that.
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Something I love about the Champions League is that you play such different teams in the competition. We played at the San Siro last week, we’ve faced Bayern and Atletico, and tonight it’s our first time playing against a team from Kazakhstan. It’s another philosophy, different tactics for us to face, and that’s cool as well, and something new. In the Premier League we know pretty much every team so well from playing against them many times. This is a different type of challenge and something new to everyone and we’re looking forward to that.
Finally I wanted to mention Ethan Nwaneri, and to wish him luck with his loan spell at Marseille – it certainly started well with his goal at the weekend! I went on loan a few times when I was a young player and so I spoke with Ethan before he left about it.
We spoke about what he was feeling about his situation and the opportunity, and I understand it – I’ve been there too. Obviously you always want to play more, so this will be a good move for him. I’m sure he’s going to do well there and hopefully get a lot of opportunities to show his qualities and his talent. He’ll be absolutely fine and come back here stronger from it, so it should be good for everyone.
At that stage of your career, you need to play games to grow even more and it’s a chance for him to take more responsibility and to grow as a player, and as a person. Also it’s a different country, different language and a lot of things that come with living away – so many players, including me, have benefitted from good loan moves, and I’m sure it’s going to be a good experience for him and that he’s going to learn a lot from that. We’re looking forward to seeing how he’s going to do there.
Read the rest of Martin’s notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying the Arsenal v Manchester United programme either around the stadium or online.
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