5/10 Arsenal star fell 'stinking'

On Wednesday evening, Arsenal Revived their title hopes. It wasn't pretty. In fact, not much about this season was easy on the eye.

Sadly, they are back in the title race, closing the gap with Liverpool to four points.

Well, they may be out of it again after a frustrating 2-2 draw at home to Unai Emery's Aston Villa.

Mikel ArtetaLiverpool created plenty of chances – as they did against Manchester United a week ago and Tottenham in midweek – but they were eventually undone by some poor defending.

As the Gunners struggled attacking, it was refreshing to see them take a 2-0 lead but Villa recovered well and escaped north London with a point thanks to Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins.

It wasn't a great day at all for Premier League2nd place but there were some standout performers in red and white.

Arsenal's best players against Aston Villa

After much criticism of his performances since Bukayo Saka's injury, Leandro Trossard has been giving his best in back-to-back matches now.

The Belgian scored the winner against Tottenham a few days ago and was perhaps Arsenal's biggest threat on Saturday evening.

Trossard created both of the home team's goals, dribbling the ball down the left flank before crossing for Gabriel Martinelli to slot home in the second half.

He was the provider in the second half too, crossing to Kai Havertz whose powerful effort was unable to be stopped by former Gunner Emi Martinez.

While the attack looked as if it was starting to click, Arsenal almost escaped with all three points had it not been for VAR disallowing a late goal. A long-range shot hit Havertz's arm and slotted into the net.

The big positive of the night was that the German once again found himself among the goals. Aside from him and Trossard, teenager Myles Lewis Skelly also impressed again and almost got the match-winning assist, threading the ball beyond Trossard in stoppage time, but the former Brighton man put the chance wide.

On the other hand, it was unfortunate that Arsenal's main constructor, the team's captain, was not present at the races.

Martin Odegaard's performance in numbers

This has not been the greatest of seasons Martin Odegaard.

Performance in numbers

Do you want data and statistics? Football FanCast's Performance By Numbers series brings you the latest match analysis from across Europe.

The Norwegian suffered an ankle injury while on international duty with Norway in September, a moment that saw him miss 12 matches. Since his return he has not performed well.

It is worth noting that he missed a penalty kick last Sunday in the FA Cup, and the captain appears to be suffering from a lack of confidence, which was not helped by Saka's injury.

However, with the Englishman out, someone has to stand up and it has to be Odegaard. He is Arteta's leader on the field but does not display the required qualities either in the leadership department or on the ball.

His performance against Emery's men was very poor Arsenal reporter Con Harrison described him as “stinking”.While he handed him the GOAL Modest match rating 5/10.

The stats tell the story of a really bad evening for Odegaard who made just one key pass. Usually a leader of chances within Arsenal's side, he has really struggled to pick up pockets of space between Villa's lines.

What summed things up was a late free kick, a moment that turned out to be the final kick of the match. Odegaard passed the ball deep and straight into Martinez's arms.

That was one of the 18 times he gave up the ball To make matters worse, he has not won a single game, a fact that Arteta will no doubt be concerned about.

He also only had one shot and failed on his only dribble attempt. This was easily one of his worst performances in an Arsenal shirt.

If the Gunners are to have any chance of winning the league, they need to improve their captain quickly.

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