‘Terrible’: Martin Odegaard issues some home truths for ‘really bad’ Arsenal

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Martin Odegaard admits ‘a lot’ went wrong for Arsenal during a ‘terrible’ performance at Crystal Place but the Gunners cannot feel sorry for themselves, via the Evening Standard.

Patrick Vieira’s Eagles stunned the Emirates Stadium natives on their trip to south London on Monday to win 3-0. Jean-Philippe Mateta broke the deadlock with his fourth goal of the term, before Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha with a penalty scored either side of the break.

Arsenal rarely got out of their own shadows during the first half at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace dictated proceedings. Errors from the away side also allowed Vieira’s men to claim a lead, with Nuno Tavares ducking the ball and his duties in the build-up to Mateta’s goal.

The Selhurst Park clash marked a missed opportunity for Arsenal in their quest to qualify for the Champions League. Tottenham moved above their north London rivals by beating Newcastle 5-1 on Sunday. But Spurs are only above Mikel Arteta’s side on goal difference.

Arsenal also have a game in hand, but their fixture is an away day at Chelsea scheduled for April 20. So, the Gunners now need to take successive wins at Stamford Bridge for the first time in the top-flight since visits during the 1996/97 and ‘97/98 seasons to make it count.

Martin Odegaard admits ‘a lot’ went wrong in ‘terrible’ Arsenal performance

Odegaard admits there were several parts of Arsenal’s performance that proved costly for Arteta’s side at Crystal Palace on Monday. But the Norway captain wants the Gunners to focus on their next game at home to Brighton on Saturday than dwell on their discontent.

“We should have done much better,” Odegaard said, “but there is no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to get back to work and think about the next game already. Today is tough, but we have to look forward. We have to learn from it obviously.

“We have to look at the game, what we did wrong and make sure it won’t happen again. It was a terrible game from us, from start to finish. Maybe a bit better in the last 10 minutes. But in general, I think it was a really bad performance.

“A lot of things went wrong. We weren’t really strong on the ball, we didn’t win any duels and we looked a bit slow from the start. We lacked the sharpness and aggressiveness we always have.”