Martin Odegaard names Arsenal player who is 'aggressive and always a threat' after Olympiacos win

Martin Odegaard has been speaking after Arsenal’s Champions League group phase win over Olympiacos on Wednesday night. Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka were on target to make it two wins from two to kick off the Champions League, and Arsenal were dominant, but the killer goal did not arrive until stoppage time.

Olympiacos did have a goal ruled out, but Arsenal were dominant, and the win caps a good week for Mikel Arteta’s men, who secured a comeback win over Newcastle United over the weekend, narrowing Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League to two points.

In the Olympiacos win, Martin Odegaard was the standout player, with BBC Sport pundit Ally McCoist agreeing, saying: “A terrific game of football. In the first half, Arsenal's performance probably merited going in more than one up at half time. Having said that, Olympiacos came right back into it and played some great football. The front three were lively. For me, the best player was Odegaard.”

Odegaard himself spoke to TNT Sports after the game, adding: “It was nice to be back. I have missed it and I felt good, and it was a good win. We work on that [the fluidity] a lot, we want to create a lot. We know the quality we have in the team and how solid we are defensively so if we can create those chances and flow, it is always going to be good."

On his relationship with Viktor Gyokeres on the pitch, he continued: “That is what I want to do, especially with those forward players, especially with Viktor [Gyokeres] who is so aggressive and always a threat. That is my job, to create things for them. I could have had a few more assists, but we got the win and I enjoyed it."

Asked about what Arteta has told him, the Norwegian responded: "You have to play what you see, sometimes the game requires you to take more touches and sometimes fewer touches."

Martinelli on Champions League win

Arsenal winger Martinelli, who scored the opening goal in the game, said after the win: “This is Champions League, Olympiacos are a really good side with really good players. We could have scored more goals in the first half, we had some chances but that is the Champions League. We play for Arsenal and we want to win every single game of the season if possible and we want to win every trophy that we can."

He added on his goal: "I tried to wait a little bit to see if it was Viktor [Gyokores'] goal and then it touched the post and I scored. It was a good goal so happy with the goal and the victory."

Arsenal are now in a strong position early in this group phase, and the points are important to have in the bag with trickier games against Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan still to come, albeit only the Inter game is away from home, which is an advantage.

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