“Brighton are a very tough opponent” – Odegaard speks ahead of early kickoff

Arsenal Captain talking hard ahead of early kickoff

Ahead of today’s game against Brighton, he chats about welcoming an old friend to the club, how impressed he is with how our opponents constantly evolve and what we need to do to make it three wins from three. Here’s a snippet: 

 It’s great to welcome Mikel Merino to the club. I played with him for one season at Real Sociedad when I was on loan there. He’s a great player, a great person and I have no doubt he will be a really strong addition to the squad on and off the pitch.  He’s a leader as well, he’s been through a lot in his career, has won things with Sociedad and also with Spain now, so he brings something different. He brings a lot of quality on the ball of course, but also in the duels he is so strong.

The number of duels he wins is incredible and on top of that, he runs so much in every game. I had a great connection with him in Spain and we played very well together, so I’m really looking forward to playing with him again. I spoke to him a few times when his move here started to happen. I basically just said to him that I was there if he needed anything to settle into his new club, and how much I was looking forward to getting going again with him.

Now our focus is on Brighton today, and with these early kick-off times we always need the help of every single one of you in the stadium to get right behind us and help create the energy. We’re really looking forward to be playing back here at home again, I’m sure the atmosphere will be great as usual because it’s another big test for us.  Brighton have won both their opening games and they look to be really strong again under their new manager. They always do it – for as long as I’ve been in the Premier League they have been really strong opponents. They have great recruitment every season and they always play an interesting style of football. They like to get forward, build from the back, it’s a good team and we need to be ready for them.

We are all just focusing on setting the tone from the first whistle, fighting for every moment and going for the three points. Thanks for your brilliant support last week at Villa Park, bring the noise again this afternoon!