Former Arsenal man Perry Groves believes Martin Odegaard is starting to make the number 10 role his own at the club.
The Norwegian join the club in the summer from Real Madrid after initially spending some time on loan at the Emirates at the end of last season.
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Odegaard struggled during the first few weeks of the season but has impressed in recent weeks and Groves has praised the midfielder.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Groves said: “I was actually worried about Odegaard at first because you could tell he’s an unbelievably talented boy at first, but he wasn’t dominating games.
“We used to watch [Mesut] Ozil and he used to frustrate at times. We wanted him to go and take the game by the scruff of the neck and be dominant in that No.10 position
“Odegaard is just starting to make that role his own, he’s grabbing goals and assists and with Lacazette it’s giving him that physical presence and a base to play from and he’s got pace from [Bukayo] Saka and [Gabriel] Martinelli on both sides with him.”
Martin Ødegaard in December:
• 6 games
• 3 goals
• 3 assists
• Most chances created in the PL
• Most throughballs in the PL
• Most big chances created in the PL
• Most goal involvements in the PL
What a signing! pic.twitter.com/HSxUCdz7So
— Football365 (@F365) December 27, 2021
Arsenals good run of form has seen the Gunners shoot up the table and they currently sit in fourth place but Groves admitted he doesn’t know if his former side are good enough to hold off Manchester United under Ralf Rangnick.
“They need help. I’ve watched them in games and when there’s a period in games that’s not going your way, when you’re under the cosh, you’ve got to be able to get through that period.
“It’s a ten, 15 minute period where you knuckle down when you don’t concede.
“Watching Arsenal play when we do go through that period in games, it looks like we’re going to concede
“I can’t seem him doing much business in January because he knows this is his team now.
“Let’s be honest if Ralf Rangnick is half the manager that everybody says he is at Manchester United, if he doesn’t get them fourth with their quality then he should be nowhere near there at the end of the season.”
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