Arsenal captain Martin rues for giving West Ham hope by doing "stupid things"
London [UK], April 17 (ANI): Arsenal Captain Martin Odegaard lashed out at his team for giving changes to West Ham to bounce back into the game and said that their team committed stupid things which gave hope to the dead host.
"We gave them a little bit of the game they wanted. We gave them hope when they were basically dead. It's on us," Odegaard said as quoted by Sky Sports.
Odegaard also confessed that the same mistakes were repeated from the last week
"A lot of the same things to last week," The Norwegian midfielder added
Arsenal in just 10 minutes were leading from 2-0 but later they drew the match by 2-2 West Ham, Odegaard said that his team did everything right at the start and then just lost the plot.
"We played really well in the beginning, controlled everything and it went the way we wanted. Then we stopped with that," he added
"We gave them a little bit of the game they wanted. We gave them hope when they were basically dead. It's on us," Odegaard further said.
Odegaard hoped that his team would not continue this complacent behaviour in their upcoming games.
"We have to make sure this is not a problem. The most important thing is the next game."
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said that if his team continue to concede goals like this.
"We could not control what West Ham was proposing [after the first goal]," Arteta said after the game. "If you concede two or three goals away from home, it is very difficult to win football matches.
Arteta also disappointed with Gunners' performance, said, "We have to blame ourselves with how we defended those two goals in our boxes."
"We need to have that ruthless mindset to go and kill a team. When a team is there for the taking, we have to kill the team. And when you don't do that in the Premier League, at some stage it's going to turn around," Arteta said.
The 41-year-old demanded his players to be ruthless and prove their place in the team.
"You have to fight and earn the right to play, but when we need it, you need to have more composure."
Gabriel started off the game by heading a cross from Gabriel Martinelli. Odegaard, Partey, Saka and Ben White all delivered some intricate play, helping out Jesus score the opener in the seventh minute.
Three minutes later, Martinelli swished the ball to Odegaard at the back post, leaving the skipper in a comfortable position to slam the ball past Lukasz Fabianski. The scoreline read 2-0 in just 10 minutes in the favour of Arsenal.
Arsenal conceded a goal in the first half when Said Benrahma converted a penalty. The Gunners invited their opponents back into the game after Gabriel Magalhaes brought Lucas Paqueta down in the box and the referee gave a penalty to West Ham, which Benrahma converted gleefully. The scoreline was 2-1 in 33 minutes.
At the end of half-time, the scoreline read 2-1 in favour of Arsenal.
After the resumption of action, both sides started off strongly and the visitors looked for a third goal. Martinelli's shot hit Antonio's arm inside the box and Arsenal got a penalty. But Bukayo Saka, who had converted all his four penalties in Premier League so far, missed this kick.
The visitors realised the magnitude of the big opportunity that they had missed when Thilo Kehrer lifted a long ball over Gabriel's head and Jarred Bowen was there to slam the ball past Aaron Ramsdale in the 54th minute, bringing the scores level at 2-2. In the end, Jesus came close to earning the lead back for Gunners but failed to connect with Kieran Tierney's cross. Even Saka, who tried to make up for the missed penalty, saw his shot fall short of a goal as it went into the hands of Fabianski.
Arsenal is still at the top of the table with a total of 74 points in 31 points, having won 23 of their 31 matches, drawn five and lost three. They are four points ahead of second-placed Manchester City. West Ham is in the 15th position, with 31 points in 30 matches. They have won eight matches, drawn seven and lost 15. (ANI)
