Martin Odegaard vows to help ‘aggressive’ Arsenal teammate score more goals

Martin Odegaard said it is part of his responsibility to get the best out of Arsenal teammate Viktor Gyokeres, whom he described as a constant “threat”.

Having returned to the starting line-up after close to a month, Odegaard already made an impact in Arsenal’s 2-0 Champions League win over Olympiacos on Wednesday.

The attacking midfielder created the opportunity for Bukayo Saka’s late goal to secure the win in stoppage time, his second assist this season.

Odegaard was not the only one to create goalscoring opportunities for Arsenal, however, as it was Gyokeres’s deflected shot that allowed Gabriel Martinelli to tap the ball in to an empty net to open the scoring.

Gyokeres, who had three shots in the game, did not find the net himself, but Odegaard believes the striker poses problems to the opposition defenders.

“That’s what I want to do,” the Norway international told TNT Sports, as reported by Football London, when speaking about his role as a creator in the team.

“Especially when you have those players up front, and especially with Viktor, he’s so aggressive and always starts, always a threat.

“That’s my job, to create things for them. In the end, I got the assist; I could have had a few more and scored a goal, but we got the win, and it was good, so I enjoyed it.

“When you have players like Viktor up front, you have to feed him, and I thought we did that quite well today, and we have to keep going and keep building on this.”

Gyokeres, who joined Arsenal from Sporting in July, is leading the goalscoring charts in the team this season with three goals, all in the Premier League, despite not scoring in the last five games.

Given his incredible output in Portugal last term, 39 goals from 33 games, it is fair to assume that the more Arsenal can provide Gyokeres opportunities in the final third, the easier it would be for them to win games.

Arsenal, who currently sit second in the Premier League table behind Liverpool, will host West Ham on Saturday before heading into the international break.