Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has been urged to leave the club this summer as he is no longer an ‘influential’ player for Mikel Arteta.
Odegaard has been one of Arsenal’s standout players since his £30m move from Real Madrid in 2021, making over 200 appearances for the Gunners.
The Norway international was once arguably the most important member of Mikel Arteta’s squad but his stock has fallen over the past 18 months.
Odegaard only contributed three Premier League goals last season and has endured another underwhelming campaign this term, starting less than half of Arsenal’s games.
His reduced role at Arsenal can partly be explained by injury issues but Odegaard’s form has also been criticised by a number of pundits.
Even when fit, Odegaard has often been benched by Arteta, who last summer sanctioned Arsenal’s £67.5m move from Eberechi Eze.
Eze started Arsenal’s emphatic north London derby win over Tottenham on Sunday, scoring twice to add to the hat-trick he scored in the first game against Spurs back in November.
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Odegaard, in contrast, only came on as a late substitute and this was further proof of his increasingly bit-part status at Arsenal, according to Liverpool legend Steve Nicol and ex-Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf.
Asked how Arteta should use Odegaard for the rest of the season as Arsenal chase a long-awaited Premier League title, Nicol said on ESPN: ‘Odegaard might be leaving Arsenal.
‘If you’re Odegaard, the club captain and 18 months ago you were the guy. All of a sudden – and I know he’s had some injuries – but there’s question marks over whether he actually starts because of Eze.
‘And maybe because of the way he’s been playing, someone else might get ahead of him as well. So if you’re Martin Odegaard, do you stick around? I don’t think you do.’
Leboeuf added: ‘I agree, I agree. I’ve always liked Martin Odegaard and the way he plays because he’s very elegant, but he’s not influential anymore.
‘He’s there to start the action, to distribute the ball horizontally. But with Eze right now the moves are not the same, he’s more vertical, more influential and he’s going to help [Viktor] Gyokeres too.
Who should start for Arsenal?
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Martin Odegaard
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Eberechi Eze
‘So it will be a hard time for Odegaard and he will have to make a very good choice, a big choice, at the end of the season.’
Arsenal’s emphatic 4-1 north London derby win sent the Gunners five points clear of title rivals Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Arteta was full of praise for Eze after the Tottenham victory and praised his reaction to Arsenal’s previous two games in which he was subbed off and then benched.
‘He has scored five goals in the last two games against Tottenham, which is extremely difficult to do, but I could see that he wanted to prove something,’ Arteta said in his post-match press conference.
‘He was upset, even with me, because I didn’t play him in the other day from the beginning and some of the decisions that I made. And I start to understand how we’re going to get the best out of him now.
‘He had that belief and I’m really happy with him. He’s really trying to mould and adapt into what we want from him.
‘You just have to look at his face and the way he was in the dressing room and with that big smile and his eyes are just expressing everything that you need to.
‘He came here for a reason and we need those moments from these players. I think him and the front players today, I think they’ve done what we expect from them.’
The big games keep coming for title favourites Arsenal, who face Club World Cup holders and London rivals Chelsea this weekend.
Arteta is bidding to become the first Arsenal manager since Arsene Wenger in 2004 to lift the Premier League trophy.
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