Arsenal's Sunday went from bad to worse after Mikel Arteta confirmed that Gunners captain Martin Odegaard suffered an injury during their shock 2-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa.
The Arsenal boss raised eyebrows in the 79th minute when he made the decision to sub off Odegaard and bring on team-mate Emile Smith Rowe. Gunners fans immediately speculated over the reason behind Arteta's decision, but it's now emerged that the Arsenal skipper 'felt something' in the latter stages.
Odegaard, 25, was withdrawn at 0-0 and during his time off the pitch, Villa scored twice in quick succession to send shockwaves around the Premier League. Post-match, Arteta was asked about bringing the Norwegian midfielder off and revealed: "He was feeling something. He could not continue."
The Arsenal manager wouldn't say anything more when pressed to explain what the problem was, leaving supporters in the dark as to whether Odegaard will be available for Wednesday's mouth-watering Champions League quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich. The Gunners will head to Germany for the second leg with everything to play for, having drawn 2-2 with the Bundesliga giants when Harry Kane and co visited the Emirates last week.
Arteta sees the trip as a perfect opportunity for Arsenal to bounce back from Sunday's defeat which leaves them at the mercy of Manchester City in the Premier League title race with six games to go. "We can't control [City]. What we can control is that when we have the run we had when you win, win, win, win, it's easy," the Spaniard explained.
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"The moment is now. After this blow, it's how we react. We have the best opportunity to react against Bayern Munich on Wednesday. The team has to show it. If you want to win, you have to overcome these situations. With the games we had, this was going to happen. It is now about how we react. This is in our control."
Your turn! Could Arsenal beat Bayern Munich without Martin Odegaard? Give us your verdict in the comments section.
Odegaard was unable to finish the match due to injury (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)Arteta also called on his players to show character and become leaders - and they'll especially need to if Odegaard spends any time on the sidelines. "If one result is going to do that [damage confidence] then we are not strong enough, that's very simple," he stated.
"We had one of the best performances in the first half that we had this season by far against a really good team, it should have been three or four or more. It didn’t happen in the second half, momentum shifted, we could not control and generate what we did in the first half.
"We struggled, we conceded two very poor goals and we lost the game so congratulations to the opponent and now is the moment to stand up as a leader, as a character to make yourself count because when you win and win and win and win for four months, it's very simple to do it. The moment is now."
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