Martin Odegaard’s absence from the Arsenal team has been significant, but the Gunners have coped remarkably well without him.
Arsenal is demonstrating that they do not rely on just one player to secure victories. Even in the match against Tottenham, where both Odegaard and Declan Rice were unavailable, Arsenal emerged victorious.
Over the weekend, they faced Manchester City without Odegaard and had a player sent off in the first half, yet they came close to winning the match.
This Arsenal squad has shown fantastic form, regardless of who is starting, and they have managed Odegaard’s absence better than many anticipated.
Gary Neville, however, seems to believe that Odegaard’s importance to the team is somewhat exaggerated and has identified two players he considers to be more crucial.
He said on Stick to Football Podcast: “If you were City… he (Odegaard) wouldn’t be the first player I would take out of Arsenal’s team. I would pick Rice or Saliba. I don’t know which one, but I would take Rice or Saliba out of the team before I picked Odegaard.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Odegaard, Rice and William Saliba are very important players to us and we need all of them to be fit for every match we play.
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Got to agree ,Saliba is probably the one world class player we have ,him along with Gabriel are our two rocks .
Odegaard goes missing in the big games ,when you see the playmakers we have had over the last 25 odd years he’s got along way to go for me ,add a few trophies then maybe .
We should be able to cover for Odergaard, with the players we have. Every player is important but every player, is also, not irreplaceable.
Well he’s not wrong about either of them but I’m a massive supporter of Odegaard too. To me it’s about the whole not just individuals
Saka for me is the one player I usually say we can’t replace because he usually makes an impact one way or another even if it’s just one moment when he plays not at his best he will still have that moment more often than not Rice too is a huge miss but I wonder if we could cover him somewhat if Merino and Odegaard were available Saliba I think Timber or Tomiyasu would be his but I’m sure we’d miss our starting CB partnership should it be broken up As for Saka it looks like Stirling would need to step up in his stead