Arsenal face PSG in the Champions League on Wednesday evening in what may be the Gunners’ biggest game in almost 20 years.
Indeed, it doesn’t come much bigger than this, a place in the Champions League final awaits, and Inter Milan are on the horizon as the Gunners try to set up a date with destiny.
Arsenal were fancied to get past PSG, but now, after losing 1-0 at home, the Gunners are underdogs here.
Mikel Arteta has a few selection headaches on his plate here. There have been suggestions that Arteta could do something different up front, while speaking on TalkSPORT, Gabby Agbonlahor and Ally McCoist have been questioning Martin Odegaard’s place in the team.
Odegaard has been criticised for his performances as of late, but according to McCoist, the Arsenal captain has to start in this game.
Martin Odegaard should start vs PSG
McCoist and Agbonlahor discussed Odegaard’s place in the Arsenal XI on Wednesday.
Agbonlahor questioned whether Odegaard should start after his recent dip in form, but McCoist thinks Odegaard has to start in this match, regardless of his recent form.
Odegaard has been accused of going missing in big games, and there’s an argument to make that he shouldn’t start here.
“Do you start Odegaard, because he’s not been in great form at all. A lot of Arsenal fans are saying Nwaneri could come in, it’s a big decision,” Agbonlahor asked.
“No, you’ve got to start him, you have to start him for me. You must start him,” McCoist said.
Arsenal’s Champions League record without Martin Odegaard this season
Dropping your captain for a game of this magnitude does sound preposterous, but, at the same time, there is an argument to make for taking Odegaard out of this side.
Of course, causation and correlation are two different things, but Arsenal are unbeaten in Champions League games that the £30m man has missed this season.
Odegaard was out with an injury earlier this year, and Arsenal coped well without him in Europe.
| Arsenal’s Champions League record without Martin Odegaard | |
| Games | 3 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Draws | 1 |
| Losses | 0 |
In fact, one of those wins was a 2-0 victory against PSG. Arsenal have already shown this season that they can beat PSG without Odegaard.
Games like this call for big rolls of the dice, and, who knows? Perhaps a left-field call like dropping Martin Odegaard could be just what Arsenal need in order to throw PSG off their own cleverly-curated gameplan.
