Martin Odegaard has hailed Arsenal’s 2-0 win at Newcastle as a ‘special’ performance after the Gunners maintained the pressure on title rivals Manchester City.
Arsenal reduced City’s lead at the top of the table to just one point after a hard-fought win at St James’ Park, one which saw the north Londoners ride their luck on occasion to claim three points.
Odegaard opened the scoring for Arsenal with his 15th goal of the Premier League campaign, after the visitors had weathered an early storm that saw a Newcastle penalty overturned by VAR and Jacob Murphy hit the post.
Aaron Ramsdale then made a fine save to deny Fabian Schar, before the latter put through his own goal from Gabriel Martinelli’s cross to double Arsenal’s advantage.
Arsenal’s win was a second in succession after a four-game winless run and Odegaard praised his side’s mentality in bouncing back to secure results against Chelsea and Newcastle this week.
“We showed something special here today,” Odegaard told Sky Sports.
”To come here and win is not easy. We had to be very smart and to be ugly at times. It is a big step for a young team like ours to come here and do the things we did. It shows we have come a long way.
“Last year here was one of the toughest days of my career, to be honest. After dropping points against Man City, to win against Chelsea and then come here and win shows the mentality.
”We have to keep going and digging in and fight until the end. It is football, anything can happen and we need to be ready.”
