Odegaard – ‘It’s not good enough’

Martin Odegaard was clearly dejected after our penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, saying the result was tough to take.

We fought back to level at 1-1 after the visitors had been reduced to 10 men on the hour mark, but the captain then saw his penalty saved by Altay Bayindir, and we were unable to grab the crucial second after that.

So the game was settled in a shootout, and although Odegaard converted from 12 yards this time to get us off to the perfect start, Kai Havertz had his effort well saved, ultimately sending us out of the competition.

“It’s a really tough one,” Odegaard said afterwards. “Really frustrating. I think we completely dominated the game from the first half until the end. We could have been a bit sharper in front of goal, in the last pass, the last shot. To lose that game at home when we dominated everything, it’s a tough one.”

We racked up 26 shots to United’s seven, and had seven on target, but for the second game in a week, we failed to capitalise on our dominance.

“It’s hard to say at the moment exactly why, but I think it’s small details; the last pass, the finish, the decision-making. Again, I think we did more than enough to win this game – I don’t know if they had a better chance than the goal and we created enough to score. Me with the penalty as well, that should have been a goal.

“It’s not good enough from me, I have to score that one. I think it was a crucial moment as well, so it was a tough one to take. That’s it.”

There’s little time to dwell on the result though, with the north London derby next on the schedule, back at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night.

“It’s a big game coming up,” the captain said, “and we just have to keep going, look for that one and win it, and just work from there.

“We have to be together; we win and lose together. This is a tough one to take but we have a massive game coming up, we have lots to play for and we have to stick together, keep working hard, keep helping each other, supporting each other. Now it’s just time to look to the next game and win that one.”