Martin Odegaard now hopes to create quick connection with ‘quality’ Arsenal teammate

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Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is hoping to create a quick connection with new teammate Declan Rice.

That’s via an interview with Football London when the Norwegian spoke about Rice’s leadership qualities.

He said: “Every time I played against him I saw the quality.”

“He’s a leader as well so it’s great for me to work together and hopefully we can help each other a lot.”

“Every time I played him it was a tough one. We had some tough battles so I’m happy to have him on the team and hopefully we can find a good connection very quickly.”

Odegaard was speaking during Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the US where they face the MLS All-Stars on Thursday morning.

Arsenal fans will hope to see their captain, who is now back in training, in action after he suffered a slight knock last week.

Arsenal drew their opening pre-season friendly 1-1 against FC Nurnberg in Germany, Bukayo Saka scoring their goal.

And they’ll be optimistic for an improvement on that display with the introduction of £105m signing Declan Rice.

Rice joined the side on their US tour and will no doubt be raring to go against the best that the MLS has to offer.

Odegaard says Arsenal have another leader in Rice

Mikel Arteta has seemed keen to conduct his business early this summer and will be happy to see three of his key signings on this tour.

Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber are both with the squad and Havertz has already make his debut in Germany.

The German international fast-tracked his start at the club and wasted no time to play his first minutes.

In that same vein, Arsenal fans can surely expect minutes for both Rice and Timber tomorrow morning.

Whether Arsenal are finished with their spending in this window is another question.

The North London side have been credited with strong interest in Ajax’s 22-year-old Mohammed Kudus.

Any deal for the midfielder, who was excellent at the World Cup, is expected to cost around £40m. 

Kudus could offer Arteta’s side excellent versatility across multiple attacking positions.

The Ghana international has predominantly featured as an attacking midfielder in his career to date but is also comfortable as a striker and winger.

However, any further incomings for Arsenal are likely to depend on the side being able to offload some players.

Defender Rob Holding was subject to interest from Besiktas in recent days.