‘Outstanding’… Micah Richards thought £30m Arsenal star was even better than Jorginho yesterday

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Micah Richards has named the Arsenal star who he thought was even better than Jorginho on Sunday as the Gunners claimed a huge win against Liverpool in the Premier League title race.

Mikel Arteta’s men have moved themselves to within two points of the summit after a 3-1 victory at the Emirates. Arsenal took full advantage of Liverpool being well below par in the game.

Jorginho received a lot of plaudits for his performance on his return to the side. The Italian was named as player of the match by Gary Neville. And Declan Rice described Jorginho’s performance as unbelievable after the game.

Micah Richards lauds Martin Odegaard after Arsenal win

But speaking on The Rest Is Football, Micah Richards suggested that he was actually blown away by the performance of Martin Odegaard in the win.

“I know Jorginho got player of the match but Odegaard today. Jorginho was class and it was his first start since November so we get it, coming in and having that sort of impact was brilliant, but Odegaard his passing, his weight of passing and how composed he is on the ball is just outstanding. He is back to his best. He had a bit of a dip when he had his injury this morning but today he was outstanding,” he said.

A captain’s performance

It was a captain’s performance from the £30 million man. Odegaard is one of the Arsenal players who has been underwhelming for much of this season. But he certainly stepped up on Sunday.

No player completed more key passes than the Norwegian, according to Whoscored. He also made two tackles during the victory.

Richards is right that Jorginho’s performance was all the more impressive because it seemed like such a big call to pick him in the team. Meanwhile, Arsenal fans would have known that Odegaard would always need to step up if they were going to get the win.

Odegaard absolutely managed to do exactly that on Sunday. And Arsenal now have an amazing opportunity to put themselves right in the title mix again.