Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard calls for cool heads as Man City go top

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard issued a call to arms, urging his teammates to “keep calm” despite losing 3-1 to title rivals Manchester City.

City, who have played one more game, returned to the top on goal difference after winning 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night.

Arsenal have 16 games left and know it’s in their hands if they take care of business, which is why Odegaard isn’t hitting the panic button yet.

“We know there’s a long way to go, we’ve said it after every game we’ve won,” he said. arsenal website.

“We have to keep calm, keep working hard and play game by game.”

Martin Odegaard has asked his Arsenal teammates to remain calm and continue in the title race

Arsenal still have one game left that could push them past Manchester City again.

Arsenal fell victim to their own downfall that night, giving away goals to City, who scored through Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland.

Odegaard knows that he and his teammates failed to live up to their potential, and while he was frustrated, he had few complaints about the team that won.

“The game is decided in the boxes and we have not been sufficiently tuned, facing the goal and ours as well. They were better,’ he added, speaking to Amazon Prime Video.

“Apart from that, we played a good game, we did a lot of good things and we had a lot of good moments, but we have to be better in the boxes.

It’s soccer. Sometimes opportunities come in, sometimes they don’t. But that’s where we have to improve and be more clinical and defend our box. It’s not just about one player, it’s about the whole team.

‘As we have said throughout the season, work hard and play game by game. It’s the same now. It’s a game we’ve lost here today and now we’re looking at the next one. A new match on Saturday and we must come back and win.

“It was an amazing atmosphere and we are so grateful to everyone who came out here today and made the game special. We will work hard to give them something to make them happy.’

Boss Mikel Arteta was further frustrated with the ease with which City had such good opportunities to take the game away from Arsenal.

He said: ‘To beat them we have to be above our level because they are a good team with individual quality, we match them but in the big moments the games are defined in the area and they were better than us.

‘The second half we had moments in which we were imprecise, we played fast without an advantage and we got into trouble.

‘The way we give away goals at this level is not possible. You don’t play that you have to play a different game and we didn’t do that well enough.

Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu gave City the lead when his back pass went straight to Kevin De Bruyne, who hit the Gunners goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale magnificently.

Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Arsenal on Wednesday sparked jubilant celebrations

However, he added that he is “more confident” that the Gunners can win the title after taking the game to the reigning champions.

Arteta said: ‘I didn’t see any difference, from man to man they were higher, but we came out of the pressure well and sometimes we didn’t understand when to play the ball in certain areas and we were punished.

“The atmosphere and the performance were really good if you take three goals away from Man City. For the rest I don’t know what I can since they are the best in the world and we matched that level.

‘I believe more (in winning the title) because I see a team that goes head to head with them. You have to go to the next one and we have to be at our best, I have confidence in my players.”