Pep Guardiola lauds Arsenal loanee Martin Odegaard

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Pep Guardiola has labelled Arsenal loanee Martin Odegaard a big talent, in comments reported by Football London, despite the youngster struggling to make a significant impression in Sunday’s clash with Manchester City.

Odegaard has made an encouraging start to life in North London. There have certainly been flashes of his brilliance for Mikel Arteta’s side.

Unfortunately, he struggled to make any sort of impact against the league leaders. The Norwegian was on the pitch for 73 minutes and rarely looked like inspiring Arsenal back into the game after City opened the scoring inside two minutes.

Nevertheless, the 22-year-old has received big praise from Guardiola, with the Manchester City boss seemingly offering a brief assessment of the Gunners’ January signing after the game.

“He’s a big talent,” he said, as reported by Football London. “He was a brilliant Real Madrid player and when you play for Real Madrid you’re always good.”

It seems too soon to be overly critical of Odegaard. Unfortunately for Arsenal, it is a fact that if he was closer to being the finished article, he would likely still be at Real Madrid and in Zinedine Zidane’s plans.

There have been encouraging signs. And it would be unfair to write a player off because of how they played against this City side right now.

But with the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli starting on the bench on Sunday, you could also understand why supporters felt that Odegaard needed to offer a lot more.