Odegaard Back At His Best! (Liv) | Arsenal 1-0 Hull

Big, big news. AFTV are coming to America for the Champions Tour, where we celebrate Arsenal winning the league and do some mega watch parties. We're coming to LA, we're coming to Las Vegas, to Dallas, to New York, and also to Toronto. You've got to check this out. This is going to be huge. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen to get more information. Welcome back to AFTV. Cannot wait. I'm here with Liv and we've just witnessed Arsenal go top of the table, six points clear after having beaten Hull at home 1-0. Liv, your initial thoughts on the game. It's a repeated story of a lot of what I've seen this season, bar maybe Liverpool and Prague, where we've not started aggressive enough, we've not started, we weren't clinical enough in the first half and then changes are made and we get a bit more of that, you know, attacking flair and creativity. So, you know, are the line-ups wrong? You've got to question. Or is it just, yeah, we just need to do better in that regard, I think. You mentioned the line-up there. I did make the point on the watch-along, so I'm not being wise after the event, but I would have liked to have seen Eze start. I thought he'd made it. A difference when he came on. I thought he looked sharp. He looked creative. But you know what? Yeah, we looked a bit disjointed, especially in the first half. But you know what? I'm going to say I thought Hull deserved some credit because they obviously came to the Emirates with a game plan. And I thought they defended well. And in that first half, they actually went close a couple of times. Yeah, I mean, obviously we dominated possession, but it's not all about that, is it? There was the first, what, 30 minutes? They had more shots, more shots on target. I think they're a team that shouldn't be... I told you, I predicted 1-0. You did, fair play. It ended 1-0. They're not a team... Obviously, they're newly promoted, but they've not been losing loads of games. They've been drawing them, and that was nearly another one of those. So it's not to be complacent or anything with these newly promoted teams. They're what? Well, they were 11th coming into this game. They should be really, really proud of themselves. I wasn't expecting them to start off the way they have, you know. So, Yeah, if they can start converting those draws into, like, wins, yeah, who knows? you Yeah, I think from what I've seen in the whole, I mean, obviously I saw their game against United when they were really good. And like you said, they've had quite a few draws, but they looked a well-organised unit. They've got some athletic players in the team. know, They obviously fight for the shirt. I do think they'll stay up. With regards to Arsenal, though, a lot of people making the, shall I say, criticism, making the point that The front three today wasn't fluent enough, it was a bit disjointed, especially in that first half. Havertz didn't have his best game, neither did Solis. Would you agree and what would you say about that? Yeah, I mean, Solis is a young lad playing at the top level now. It's going to take him some time. I mean, we've seen glimpses of some really good stuff from him, especially like, what, pre-season, the beginning of the season, you know, and then he's been injured, obviously. So you've got to give him a bit of grace. The problem is, is that we should have acquired more options for that position. That is the simple issue. We can't now start blaming a young lad. Do you know what I mean? No, no, I'm not blaming him. No, no, I'm not saying you are, but we need to be careful not to do that, you know. And then have a... I don't know what to make of the guy. Honestly, one week I'm like, oh, brilliant, you know. And then he's not an out-and-out striker, is he? But then what is he? He's not a midfielder. So, you know, you want more from him. Of course you do. And in the moments where he's good, he's great. But, again... Thank He wasn't even brought into this team to do that job. It's something that he's now having to do because it's just him and Gyökeres. Gyökeres hasn't hit the ground running. I think Gyökeres is really good, to be honest, but a lot of people disagree with me. So, So, yeah, that's what we have. Out of the two of them, who would you prefer? you. Who would be your preference? We know who the manager's preference is. Who would you be? It depends who we're playing. If we're going to play a team that's going to sit in the low block, Gyökeres is not going to get space to run in behind and stuff like that. Right now, I prefer Gyökeres. I thought he was so good against Prague on Wednesday. I really enjoyed his performance. And another one, Noni, that day as well. Excellent. Really good. I saw Gyökeres, he's finding his feet in this team. Do you know what I mean? And it's difficult for him because he doesn't get served in the way that he did at Sporting. Because we don't play like that. It's different. You know, it's more... It's less of like, oh, just pass to him, let him, you know. It's team goals, you know, goals coming from everywhere. So I think he is starting to adjust to that now, which is really good to see. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned Noni. He had a mixed game, and I say a mixed game because I was on the verge of giving him man of the match. I thought he was going past his defender for fun, a bit like what he did in the week against Prague. But there was a couple of moments in the game that I didn't like. There was one incident. In the second half where he was sulking a little bit and Martin Odegaard had to chastise him on the pitch and say, look, mate, sort yourself out. Then there was when he was thrown goal and you're thinking, yeah, he's bound to bury that. And for some reason he decides he wants to be prime time Messi and Ronaldo. And he fluffs it. And you know the problem I've got with that is that, listen. If you're 3-0 up and it's five minutes to go and you do that, that's one thing. If you're only 1-0 up in a tight game like this was, and to do that, I thought that was poor. And for that reason, I've downgraded him. He would have been my man of the match. And I'm going to upgrade Martin Odegaard to man of the match. But I thought Nani, he looked really good at times, but he just needs to just... Level up a bit. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is, this Arsenal team don't have time for all of that. You know, any selfishness, it's not going to work. Arteta's going to have a word with him. I'm pretty sure that the manager will, if not call him into the office, he'll take him to one side and say, look, man, you had a really good game. But there's a couple of things in there that I didn't like, all you say. And then, yeah, absolutely, you'll say that. And I think he'll also say, look, there's a difference between passion and petulance. And we saw a glimpse of petulance there. But look, who cares? Like, he'll be fine, he'll have a chat and he'll be fine. Do you know what I mean? Next match, he'll learn. Not everyone's, everyone's a human being, we react, we do silly things, we make mistakes, we get a chance to correct them the next time around. Okay, yeah, I'll accept that. Let's talk about who I thought was the man of the match, real captain's performance from Martin Odegaard, thought he worked really hard, thought he was everywhere, tracking back, making runs, leading the press, scores the goal. Yeah, I thought Martin Odegaard today was exceptional. Yeah, I mean, he was the difference between Obviously, he scored the goal, us losing and us winning, or drawing and winning. And he's, he. I'm just so glad he's really back to himself because, let's be honest, last season, there were calls for his head. There were calls to get rid of him. Now, I'm so happy he's been allowed a long amount of time to find... his way back to his like his best self um and i just think you know when i think about that i think about well we need to afford the same grace to Saka then don't we because you don't know like what people go through these injuries not just physically mentally you know coming back after like such a long time out you don't know what it does to a person so i'm just yeah today he was he was brilliant he worked so hard he ran so much um and i'm just so glad he's back Liv, well said. Thank you very much. Big, big news. AFTV are coming to America for the Champions Tour, where we celebrate Arsenal winning the league and do some mega watch parties. We're coming to LA, we're coming to Las Vegas, to Dallas, to New York, and also to Toronto. You've got to check this out. This is going to be huge. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen to get more information. Cannot wait.