Martin Odegaard digs out own form for title hopefuls Arsenal

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard admits his own performances have fallen below the standards he’d expect but says he has the ability and talent to finish the season well.

Odegaard scored 23 Premier League goals during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns – the former a season that saw the Norwegian score 15 times from open play. Yet he has contributed just two goals and three assists in what’s been an injury-hit 2024/25 season, leaving Arsenal to look toothless in attack on occasion in the absence of Bukayo Saka.

His sensational best was on show during the 7-1 midweek thrashing of PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie, showing some of Odegaard’s detractors exactly what he’s capable of.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s trip to Manchester United, the 26-year-old revealed he’s used to his performances being scrutinised and talked about falling short in front of goal in what’s looking likely to be another near-miss for Arsenal as they look to win a first Premier League title since 2004.

“To be honest I’m very used to people speaking about me and judging my performances,” Odegaard told Arsenal club channels.

“But I think I do that, I’m very hard on myself and I know I haven’t been good enough, especially in front of goal. So that’s normal, I work hard every day to improve it and I know I have the ability and talent to do it and this week was good and hopefully I can score more to end the season.

“It’s always hard to play at the end of the season but yeah I think every game is so important from start to the end. But hopefully like last year we can hit top form towards the end and see where that takes us in the league and Champions League.”

With Liverpool now 16 points clear of Arsenal heading into the final stretch of the season, it would take an unprecedented collapse from Arne Slot’s side to allow the Gunners back into the title picture.

However, victory for Arsenal over United and in their other game in hand would cut the deficit down to ten points – leading Odegaard to state that the fight is not over yet.

“We have to do our job, we can only hope and win our games, then we will see what happens,” he said. “Obviously we’ve put ourselves in a difficult position at the moment but we have to keep going, we have to try and win every time we play and we will see what happens with Liverpool, but I think the main thing is to focus on us and we can win the games.

“We will fight until the end, I think that’s the mindset of everyone, we’ve been fighting three years in a row for the title and a few years back we were leading with a lot of points and we ended second, so in football everything is possible, the main thing is just to keep going and keep working hard and day-by-day get better and win the games and we’ll see.”