Mikel Arteta claims injustice over ‘phenomenal’ Arsenal star; claims feat ‘unheard of’

Mikel Arteta wishes he could measure every contribution from Martin Odegaard – away from just his goals and assists from midfield.

Arteta initially picked Odegaard out as an ideal signing when bringing him on loan from Real Madrid last January. And the Norway international subsequently had a strong impact at the Gunners until the end of the season.

Arsenal consequently paid an initial £30million to pen Odegaard to a long-term deal at the Emirates.

This term, the Norway international has scored four goals and assisted four others in 26 appearances in all competitions. Three of those contributions came in a three-game spell in December.

However, Arteta has insisted that Odegaard still goes under the radar for much of his other work in the Arsenal team.

“The things that you cannot capture are, for example, the interaction and the chemistry that he has and produces with all the players on the pitch when he is there,” the manager told the Daily Mirror.

“How the team functions when he is there and when he is not there, that is really difficult to measure.

“But it’s something that Martin is exceptional at. He makes the people around him better.

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“Martin for us is a really important player — he is showing that every single week.”

Arteta also hailed Odegaard’s off-field mentality, which is helping his performances on the pitch.

“He’s phenomenal to work with, he’s developing areas of his game that we discussed, that he agreed, and that we believed could help him impact matches in a much more powerful way.

“His whole mindset, the way he prepares himself, the way he treats people, the way he plays the game, is just exactly what we want from an Arsenal player.”

Arteta claims rare Arsenal feat

Odegaard’s permanent signing last summer formed part of a massive summer transfer spree for the Gunners.

Indeed, the Gunners also added a new goalkeeper and reshaped their defence ahead of the current campaign.

However, Arteta has insisted that the fact that he has never had any “internal conflict” with any of his staff is “unheard of”.

“It’s unheard of,” Arteta said. “I think it’s very difficult to explain externally what it takes to do that, the thinking behind the decisions you have to make and the unpopular decisions you have to make.

“But our responsibility is to look further into the future, to say, ‘I want to get here and I have to work backwards from there because this is the aim and if I don’t do this now, we are never going to get there’.

“That is very difficult to explain, but I think between all of us, starting from the ownership, the board, Edu as our technical director and all the people in between us to make final decisions on the squad, we have been very consistent and very united.

“Because normally, when a turnaround like this happens, there is internal conflict, 100 per cent, because you cannot agree on 36 players in two years – it’s impossible.”

Arsenal are looking to finish in the Premier League’s top four this season and return to the Champions League.