Arsenal Star Happy To Use St James’s Park Defeat As “Extra Motivation”

Martin Odegaard is looking for revenge…

Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard believes it’s natural for his team to use the defeat at St James’s Park in November as motivation when Newcastle United visit the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, he said on the ‘captain’s notes‘.

Odegaard was absent for the fiery clash in November with a hip injury as our unbeaten Premier League run came to a halt in dubious circumstances.

Now, following a run of five consecutive league wins, Mikel Arteta’s men have clawed their way back into a three-way title race alongside Manchester City and Liverpool.

A win against Eddie Howe’s men will see us close the gap to the top of the table to two points and the Norwegian star is happy to use revenge as a motivation.

Having said that, Odegaard stressed that the team must not lose sight of their philosophy and what has worked for us this term.

“You all help to bring the noise, the energy and the fire in the game, so we need you again tonight – because this is something we want to do together,” the skipper wrote in the club’s programme notes.

“Of course, the defeat at St James’ Park earlier this season can be used as extra motivation, but most importantly for us, we want to keep playing our football, keep creating chances, keep scoring goals, and at the same time carry on how well we’ve been defending in our recent league games.

“It’s a good moment to do that again at home tonight,” the 25-year-old added.

Newcastle United will certainly take inspiration from Porto’s tactics in midweek and aim to stutter our game by any means necessary.

A fast start and, hopefully, an early goal will completely change the complexion of the fixture and could open the floodgates for us.

It will be interesting to see how many changes Arteta makes given the short turnaround from Porto – though the team does have an extended break until our next fixture at Sheffield United.