What Martin Odegaard was asking his Arsenal teammates to do in the second-half yesterday

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Captain Martin Odegaard was asking his Arsenal teammates to calm down throughout the second-half yesterday.

That’s according to The Athletic, who outline what was going on at the London Stadium in a frustrating game for the Gunners.

It didn’t look like it was going to go that way after the first half an hour.

Martin Odegaard scored Arsenal’s second goal of the game within the first ten minutes.

His well-controlled volley followed a simple tap-in scored by Gabriel Jesus just moments before.

However, West Ham rallied after an error from Thomas Partey led to Gabriel Magalhaes giving away a penalty.

And the momentum of the match completely changed, with the Gunners on the back foot for much of the rest of the game.

Arsenal did have the chance to regain a two-goal advantage from the penalty spot.

However, Bukayo Saka missed the first penalty of his club career and Jarrod Bowen punished his England teammate’s mistake minutes later.

Odegaard was trying to lead from the front in the second-half for Arsenal.

The Norwegian had some fantastic touches throughout the match, but looked like he was trying too hard at times to help Arsenal find a winner.

Arsenal captain Odegaard’s second-half rallying cry

The report from The Athletic states that, ‘The concern for Mikel Arteta is that neither he nor any of his leaders on the park — including the best efforts of Odegaard, who was flawless and asked his team-mates to calm down in the second half — could arrest the decline in performance.’

Odegaard has grown into the leadership role given to him by Mikel Arteta throughout the season.

He doesn’t always come across as the biggest voice in the squad, but was the first to put an arm around Bukayo Saka when he missed his penalty.

He’s been compared to Cesc Fabregas recently, and it’s easy to see why.

The 24-year-old is the focal point of many of Arsenal’s attacks this season, picking the perfect moment to play in the likes of Saka and Martinelli.

Odegaard also has Gabriel Jesus to work closely with now, and their combined quick feet caused West Ham a lot of trouble at the start of the match.

The second-half was hard to watch from an Arsenal perspective, and even Odegaard’s pleas to calm down fell on deaf ears.

They must now bounce back against Southampton otherwise the title race may well slip away before their crunch tie with Manchester City.