Odegaard: “It’s time to stick together”

Martin Odegaard cut a hugely dejected figure after we slumped to defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday.The captain had helped get us off to a great start, setting up Declan Rice’s opener in the first half. But two goals from set piece situations gave Bournemouth all three points – condemning us to our first league defeat in nine games – and Odegaard was honest in his appraisal at the final whistle.“We’re very disappointed,” he began. “We wanted to come here today and have a really good game, get a win – for our position in the league and also to create the momentum into next week.“I think we controlled pretty much everything until they scored and then it was a bit too chaotic, and a bit wild, and we lost momentum. We didn’t really play our game after that.“The second half was very far from good enough from us. It’s not acceptable to concede two goals like that. It’s something we have to talk about and make sure we improve.“We’re disappointed now, but we have to move on and be strong and stick together and prepare for a massive game.”That next game couldn’t be much bigger. It’s the second leg of the Champions League semi-final away to Paris Saint-Germain, where we will look to overturn a 1-0 deficit to reach the final for the first time in 19 years.“It’s a massive game,” Odegaard added. “That’s the good thing, when you’re disappointed now and you’re angry and frustrated, you can use all those emotions into Wednesday. We know what we’re playing for, it’s a massive game, we have to stick together and create energy and be ready.”Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.