“He can’t even control the ball” – Arsenal fans slam ‘weird’ player after his ‘worst performance’ for the team during defeat to Crystal Palace

Martin Odegaard came under fire for his performance in Arsenal's dismal 3-0 loss to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Monday night.

The Gunners were put to the sword by former Gooner Patrick Vieira's Eagles and have suffered a huge setback in their chase for the top four.

One performance that drew the ire of Arsenal fans was from Odegaard, who didn't have one of his better games in a Gunners shirt since joining last summer.

Often looking unreliable on the ball and lacking in his usual elegance in passing, the Norweigan had a night to forget.

Fans took to Twitter to give a scathing analysis of the former Real Madrid man's performance in the defeat. Here are some of the reactions to his display:

Arsenal don't click when Martin Odeegard doesn't tick

Odegaard has had a fine season since joining on a permanent deal from Real Madrid last summer for £36 million. The Norwegian has five goals and three assists in 27 Premier League games. He has been instrumental in the middle of the park for Mikel Arteta, with the Gunners using his fantastic ability on the ball to great effect.

On Monday, though, the playmaker looked out of sorts with a second-half miss summing up his woeful performance.

When Odegaard isn't performing, the Gunners tend to struggle to get a foot hold of the game and that was the case as Palace dominated.

There was improvement in the second half, but Odegaard just never really got going on Monday night. Perhaps the international break has hampered his run of form for the north London side but Mikel Arteta will certainly be hoping he doesn't continue the slump.

Odegaard has been a fan favorite this season season, having shown consistency throughout, so his poor performance on Monday has taken some by surprise.

Now is certainly not the time for the 23-year-old to drop out of form with the Gunners chasing a top-four finish.

Arsenal now sit fifth, level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham, but they do have a game in hand over their arch-rivals.

About the author

Matthew is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who has been covering news, rumors and match reports for close to 3 years. Learning creative writing from University of Essex, he combined his skills and passion for football take up writing for the sport professionally.

Matthew always strives to go beyond a story and offer unique and lesser-known insights, while maintaining an unbiased tone in his articles. His reporting exploits at the company have helped him gain a humungous readership of 25 million, with one of his articles raking in a whopping 724,000 reads.

A Manchester United fan since childhood, Matthew admired Sir Alex Ferguson for his loyalty and brave coaching style. His favorite footballer is Thierry Henry, believing the Frenchman to be uniquely talented and charismatic. An ardent Three Lions fan, England's penalty shootout win over Colombia in 2018 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment of all time, and he believes that Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will have a Ballon d’Or duopoly after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He also follows his local EFL League Two clubs AFC Wimbledon and Sutton United, and spends his free time watching and writing about professional wrestling. He also likes to work out, watch movies and go for night outs.

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