Former Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips has praised Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard and how he ‘leads by the way he plays’.
There is a sense of deflation amongst Arsenal players right now following their 4-1 defeat to Manchester City, which probably ends their hopes of becoming Premier League champions, even though they hold a two-point lead – Pep Guardiola’s side have two games in hand.
But what shouldn’t be forgotten about is the outstanding season Mikel Arteta’s side have had and Martin Odegaard has played a big part in all of that.
Last season, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy, with Alexandre Lacazette, who departed in the summer, taking that role until the end of the season.
That’s when Arteta decided to appoint the one-time Norweigan wonderkid as Arsenal’s full-time captain and now they are on a title charge that has hit a number of massive roadblocks, with Wright-Phillips singing the 24-year-old’s praises, as he told Premier League Productions (26/04/23 at 7:25 pm).
“I feel like he might not be vocal in that way like those two players (Tony Adams and John Terry),” said Wright-Phillips.
“But I feel like he leads by the way he plays football and by the way he harasses people. He presses. That’s his form of captaincy. I feel like people will always show that leadership in a certain way and that’s his way.”
ODEGAARD STILL HAS ANOTHER LEVEL
Whilst Odegaard’s performances are worthy of him being in the Team of the Season, he still has another level to go when comparing him to the best of the best in the world.
Kevin de Bruyne is THE midfielder in the Premier League and he showed, against Arsenal last night, the levels to this game.
At the age of 24, and given that he had so much pressure on his shoulders as a teenager, Odegaard is starting to blossom and if he continues down this road, then there is no reason why he shouldn’t be spoken about in such a highly-regarded manner in years to come.
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