Martin Odegaard reveals how Arsenal's dressing room reacted to crushing Man City defeat

Martin Odegaard has revealed how the Arsenal dressing room reacted to their crushing defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday.

With the Premier League title on the line, the Gunners travelled to the Etihad in search of three points.

However, they were unable to cope against the combination of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, who ran them ragged all evening.

De Bruyne opened the scoring with a sumptuous finish inside Aaron Ramsdale's near post, before the Belgian set up John Stones to nod one home before the break.

De Bruyne was not finished there, brilliantly curling the ball through Rob Holding's leg and into the bottom corner around the hour mark.

Holding managed to restore some dignity with a well-taken finish from the edge of the area, before Haaland inevitably got his goal in stoppage time, securing a comprehensive 4-1 victory.

The defeat has left Arsenal supporters rueing their three consecutive draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, knowing that Pep Guardiola's side have the upper hand in the title race.

Odegaard, who was restricted from influencing the game in the way he usually does, lifted the lid on the players' mindset after the game.

What did he say?

Speaking after their heavy defeat, Odegaard revealed that spirits were low in the dressing room, though stressed that the title race isn't over yet.

"I think everyone [in the dressing room] is down now. We wanted to come here and get something. We just have to stick together and keep pushing," the Arsenal skipper said.

"In football anything is possible. We have to do our part and then we'll see."

"It's disappointing. I don't have an answer to why today was this.

"We should've won more duels, compete better and when we have the ball do more as well," he added.

The result leaves Arsenal two points clear of second-placed Manchester City. Although Guardiola's men have two games in hand over the north London side, with Fulham and West Ham up next in the league.

Topics: Martin Odegaard, Arsenal, Manchester City, Premier League, Football

Joe Adams

Joe is a Journalist for SPORTbible with a primary focus on football. He has previously covered a number of other sports including boxing, rugby and F1. Wishes he was born left-footed.

@joeadamsjourno