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Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard has explained that he asked his team to be patient in his half-time team talk during their match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Gunners visited Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday (November 12) for their final fixture before the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Mikel Arteta's team dominated the first half, but couldn't break through at the Molineux.
The hosts, who were 20th in the league, lined up in a 5-3-2 formation and had most of their men guarding their box when Arsenal had the ball. Odegaard and Co. got no shots on target during the first 45 minutes of the contest.
However, the Norwegian asked his men to stay patient and take their chances when they could. Speaking to the Gunners' official website after the game, which they won 2-0, he said (as quoted by TBR Football):
“We talked about it before the game, and we talked about it at half-time – it’s difficult to play against these teams with five at the back and we had to stay patient. I think we did and in the end, we got the goals. It was a tough one, I think we had to dig deep today.”
Odegaard added:
“The first half was a bit slow, we were struggling on the ball to create chances really. They defended well and we know they’re always dangerous on the counter, so it was a difficult game.
“Then we changed a few things. We sped up the game a little bit in the second half and we know we have quality, so we’re always going to create something, but we did good to get the win.”
Martin Odegaard inspires Arsenal against Wolves as Gunners extend lead atop Premier League table
Martin Odegaard didn't just rally his troops in the dressing room at half-time. The Arsenal captain delivered the goods on the pitch as well to lead the team to yet another win.
Odegaard opened the scoring against Wolverhampton Wanderers from Fabio Vieira's smart cutback in the 54th minute. He scored again with 15 minutes of regulation time left to put the game to bed. The Norwegian also completed 84% of his passes and recorded two tackles and two successful dribbles as well.
Thanks to their skipper's brace, Arteta's men moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League standings. They were given a helping hand by Brentford, who beat Manchester City 2-1 at the Etihad earlier on Saturday.
