Odegaard said Arsenal have a mindset problem, which prevents them from defending a one-goal lead
By Kehinde Okeowo
Arsenal threw away a one-goal lead against Everton at Goodison Park and Norwegian midfielder, Martin Odegard, has blamed it on the player’s mental state.
The Gunners had a similar experience in the midweek against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where they surrendered another one-goal lead to lose 3-2.
Martin Odegaard says a mental problem cost Arsenal as they lost 2-1 to Everton on Monday night.
The 22-year-old scored the opener in the game but Arsenal were pegged back by Richarlison, before Demarai Gray fired in a stunner to secure a first Premier League win for Everton since September.
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Meanwhile, Arsenal, have now lost three games in four in the English top-flight, they have also slipped to 7th from the 5th position and Odegaard feels they have a mental block issue.
“I think it is [a mindset problem]. When you’re leading 1-0 you get afraid to lose the win and in my opinion, that’s what we did wrong today,
“You go for the second goal and that was the intention, but we didn’t manage to do that on the pitch.
“It’s a hard one to take. I think in general we were not at the level we needed to be at today” Odegaard told Sky Sports
He also admitted they had opportunities to win the game but noted that they stopped playing and invited pressure on themselves after scoring the first goal.
He added: “We had some good moments, but we have to do much better. We should have been better.
“It’s hard to say. That’s just how it is sometimes. It’s hard to say exactly what happened. We have to do better when we have that lead. We stopped playing and gave them the game they wanted to play.”
The Arsenal gaffer, Mikel Arteta, was disappointed in his side’s performance against his old side, admitting his team did not play penetrating passes in the first half.
He did say the team performed better in the second half but a sloppy defending cost them the match.
In his words: “In the first half we were very inconsistent with the ball. I didn’t like it. No penetration. One of the few times we did it we scored. Second half we tried to do more of those things, created four big chances but conceded a very sloppy goal when you need to manage the game.
“We couldn’t take the ball into the final third. They’re not going to give you time, at Goodison, you know what to expect. I think the team tried to go, we kept pressing high. We lost a few important duels that put us some pressure.”
Odegaard and his teammates host Southampton in their next match on Saturday, which will be followed by a home match against West Ham four days later.
