Martin Odegaard shares what he realised about Riccardo Calafiori in Arsenal training instantly

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Although he didn’t feature in Arsenal’s pre-season defeat to Liverpool in the early hours of Thursday morning, Riccardo Calafiori is constantly on the minds of the club’s fans right now.

Mikel Arteta claimed that Calafiori wasn’t quite ready, with Arsenal preferring to take things patiently with the Italian.

In his place at left-back, Oleksandr Zinchenko struggled for Arsenal, once again torn apart by Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah – who is fully aware of his defensive weaknesses.

In truth, it seems as if Zinchenko could even be third-choice on the left this season, behind both Calafiori and Jurrien Timber when both are settled and match fit.

That being said, it seems likely that Arsenal are lining up Calafiori to make his debut in north London next week in the Emirates Cup.

Arsenal will face both Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon at the Emirates, and it would be a surprise if the Italian didn’t feature.

Arteta will already be drilling Calafiori hard in Arsenal training ahead of the new season.

And having watched his new teammate, captain Martin Odegaard has admitted that he noticed one thing immediately.

Martin Odegaard says Riccardo Calafiori has been so physcial in Arsenal training

Odegaard was speaking to Hayters TV after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool and said that Calafiori already has so much presence on the training pitch.

The Arsenal captain joined the club’s supporters in his excitement to see the Italian get started, a debut that could only be days away.

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Odegaard shared: “I think everyone saw straight away in training that he’s a top player and a top defender, physical.

“You know he has this presence on the pitch and I’m sure he’s going to give us a lot, so happy to have him on board looking forward to seeing more from him.”

Of course, it’ll be interesting to see whether Arteta has a settled back four next season, one that is recognised as his strongest.

Arsenal arguably now have five top-drawer defenders when you add Calafiori and Timber to William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White.

And unless Arteta moves Timber into the number six role on occasion, one of those names will need to miss out regularly.