Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is flying high at the moment, in sensational form and even managed to get one over on Manchester United counterpart Christian Eriksen recently.
The Gunners skipper was at the heart of a controversial incident when Mikel Arteta's men made the trip to Old Trafford earlier this season in a clash that saw United run out 3-1 winners. However, things could have gone quite differently if one decision had swung in Arsenal's favour.
With the scores still level at 0-0, Gabriel Martinelli thought he had put his side in front mid-way through the first half on United's patch. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, the strike was chalked off due to what VAR deemed a foul from Odegaard on Eriksen in the build-up.
The two midfielders bumped knees, sending the United ace to the floor and rendering Martinelli's expertly-taken strike as redundant. Arsenal weren't exactly rattled by the decision and continued to dominate proceedings, but fell behind to a debut goal from Antony.
Bukayo Saka levelled things up mid-way through the second-half, but two Marcus Rashford goals on the counter attack meant the Gunners came away from Old Trafford with nothing to show for a good performance yet again. Odegaard was left frustrated, as shown by his comments after the game.
"In my opinion, it's never a foul," the Arsenal skipper claimed. "For me, it is very, very soft. On the camera, you can always make it look a little bit worse. It's frustrating."
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He added: "I barely touched him, they keep saying this is the Premier League and want it to be physical. I don't understand how he can go back on it."
Odegaard is unlikely to have taken kindly to Eriksen's own post-match remarks, with his five-word response to the result certainly riling Arsenal fans.
The Denmark international told Sky Sports: "It was a lovely afternoon."
Fast forward four months down the line and Arsenal faced off with United once again, this time on their own patch in North London. While many weeks had passed, the pain of that previous defeat had not left Odegaard's memory.
In his pre-match programme notes before Arsenal's second league meeting with the Red Devils, Odegaard discussed where the Gunners could improve if they are to avoid a similar fate to the one they met in Manchester.
"We must also remember the match at Old Trafford earlier in the season," he explained.
"I felt that day we controlled most of the game and I felt we deserved a better result in the end. This time we want to show some more discipline, to control the game for 90 minutes and not just small periods."
Odegaard's game plan was, for the most part, executed perfectly. The Gunners ran out 3-2 winners to hand the Norwegian the last laugh, with a last-gasp Eddie Nketiah goal handing Arsenal all three points.
The Gunners captain was instrumental in the victory, pulling the strings for his side throughout while Eriksen failed to do the same for United. A win for Arsenal maintained their status as league-leaders, 11 points in front of the Red Devils at the halfway stage of the season.
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