Jack Wilshere has heaped praise on Martin Odegaard and expects the midfielder to play a key role if Arsenal are to produce a shock and beat Paris Saint-Germain in this year’s Champions League final.
Odegaard has had a frustrating season with injuries, missing a total of 25 matches across the campaign in all competitions.
However, the Arsenal captain returned to the fold at the beginning of April and has produced a string of outstanding performances, including last weekend, when the Norwegian came off the bench to set up Leandro Trossard’s crucial winner against West Ham.
The north London giants play host to Burnley in their next contest on Monday night and the 27-year-old will no doubt be desperate to start at the Emirates in what is the club’s penultimate match of the top-flight campaign.
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Victory over the Clarets would send Mikel Arteta’s men five points clear at the summit, with second-placed Manchester City travelling to Bournemouth 24 hours later.
‘I’m happy for them,’ ex-Arsenal midfielder Wilshere – now the manager of League One outfit Luton – said of the Gunners’ impressive season, with hopes of a historic double still intact.
‘I know there’s a lot of haters out there who are questioning whether they deserved it, whether they played the right football, but they need to get it over the line.
‘They’re at that point, Mikel’s at that point, where they’ve got close and they just have to get it over the line. And I think they will.’
Looking ahead to Arsenal’s eagerly anticipated Champions League showdown with PSG, Wilshere said he was anticipating a tough day at the office for his former club.
However, the former England international has been encouraged by Odegaard’s recent form and believes he could have a major part to play at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on May 30.
‘There was a time in the season when they weren’t playing as much football as I thought they could have and then they started to a little bit,’ Wilshere went on.
‘I think a big part of that is Martin Odegaard, you saw it when he came on the pitch the other day and he just brings a bit of control in midfield. I think they have to try and find some control.
‘PSG are a different type of team, they just want to attack. They don’t necessarily want to control the game with possession anymore, they just want to get it in forward areas and they’ve got some dangerous players.
‘Arsenal’s full-backs are going to have to defend really well, really, really well, and accept at times that they’re going to get beat and defend their box well.
‘Because PSG don’t really want that control, I hope that Arsenal can take that control. It will be difficult but that’s what they need to do in my opinion.’
Asked if he would rather Arsenal won the Premier League or the Champions League, Wilshere replied: ‘I think if you’d have asked that question at the start of the season then it would have been the Premier League.
‘They’ve been so close over the last few years and that’s been the big focus.
‘If you win that then you are the best team in the country, the league doesn’t lie.
‘It’s a tough question because they’re now in a position where they can win both.
‘I would probably rather win the Premier League. Growing up as a young person in this country, I watched the Premier League all my life and to win it is a massive, massive thing.
‘Saying that, the Champions League is as well but I’d say the Premier League for me.’
Speaking on a recent episode of The Good, The Bad & The Football, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes took aim at Arsenal, claiming Arteta’s side would not be remembered as a ‘great team’.
‘Listen, right now I agree with him. No, they won’t,’ Wilshere said of Scholes’ remarks.
‘But if they go on to win this then they’ve earned the right to then go again and win, go again and win. And if they can do that that’s when you get remembered.
‘It would be a massive achievement for them as a team, as a club. They haven’t won it in 22 years so they’ll be remembered within the club as the team that brought it back, but then they have to go again.
‘I’m sure that Mikel will do everything he can to try and do that.’
Will Arsenal win the double this season?
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Yes
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No
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