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Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown has praised Gunners captain Martin Odegaard following the side's 2-0 Premier League win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday (April 21).
Leandro Trossard opened the scoring on the cusp of half-time before Odegaard made sure of the three points in the fifth minute of added time at the Hawthorns. It was a swift return to winning ways for Mikel Arteta's side who had stumbled to a home loss to Aston Villa last weeked in their previous league outing.
Praising Odegaard, Keown said (as per HITC):
“We know with Martin (Odegaard). He just keeps going. He is a player who is instrumental in everything they do with the press and his creativity.
He added about the finish:
“Fair play to him, he kept going and a cute little finish. I wonder if the goalkeeper maybe should have done better. It’s just a cheeky finish there. Okay, it’s the end of the game, and he might have thought he was going to kill it, but he just saw an opportunity to finish this game off completely.
“Lovely finish. There is hardly any area to get that through, so fair play to him!”
The result returned the Gunners to the top of the table, a point ahead of champions Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
"We deserved to win the game" - Arsenal boss
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was understandably delighted with his side snapping a two-game losing streak across competitions to surge to the top of the pile.
In midweek, the Gunners had lost 1-0 at Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal second leg. Following a 2-2 first-leg home draw, Arteta's side were knocked out 3-2 on aggregate.
"It was a very good response, so proud of them," said the Spaniard about his team (as per BBC). "We reacted in the right way. We deserved to win the game and got another clean sheet again.
"Obviously disappointed to lose against Bayern, small margins but we have five games to go, and we are top again."
Seeking their first league title in 20 years, the Gunners next take on Chelsea at home on Tuesday (April 23) in the league.
