Arsenal have come under a fair bit of criticism over the last few weeks.
The Gunners first missed out on the Premier League title to Liverpool, but there was still hope of having a successful season through the Champions League.
Unfortunately for the Gunners, they crashed out of that competition as well after losing both legs against Paris Saint-Germain.
There were a few very noticeable problems in those games – one of them was the performance of Martin Odegaard, who has been heavily criticised this season.
Emmanuel Petit thinks he knows why.
Emmanuel Petit says Martin Odegaard looks so tired at Arsenal
Martin Odegaard is one of Arsenal’s most important players.
The Norway international is the club captain, and in each of the last two seasons, he was the driving force behind everything good Arsenal did in attack.
This season, however, things have been a lot more difficult for Odegaard at Arsenal, and he has often admitted himself that he hasn’t been at his best.
An injury earlier in the season that kept him out of action for about two months complicated things even further for the skipper.
Petit, who knows a thing or two about playing in midfield, has claimed that Odegaard has looked knackered all season.
He said on talkSPORT: “He has looked tired the whole season. He was missing (Bukayo) Saka for four months. Obviously, when Saka is on the pitch, he is always going on the right side to get the connection with him.
“He is the only creative midfielder we have at Arsenal. He has been injured as well this season. He looks very tired mentally and physically, that was obvious.
“This is the main problem for Arsenal over the last two to three seasons. When you lose three or four important players, it’s all over.”
Arsenal’s summer mistakes come back to haunt them
Arsenal took a big risk with their attacking midfield role last summer.
Odegaard was always going to be the main man, but Mikel Arteta decided to keep young Ethan Nwaneri as the only natural backup.
Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira were both at Arsenal last summer, but the Englishman was sold to Fulham, while the latter was loaned out to Porto.
Keeping either one of those two players would’ve eased the pressure on Odegaard and kept the Gunners performing at the highest level.
That decision was the wrong one, and Arteta and his team cannot repeat that in the upcoming window.
