Paul Scholes accuses Martin Odegaard of ‘killing’ Arsenal teammate

Paul Scholes has accused Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard of holding his team back and ‘killing’ Viktor Gyokeres.

The Norway international has just celebrated the fifth anniversary at the north London club following his move from Real Madrid.

Odegaard has been a central figure in the various incarnations of Mikel Arteta’s best teams since his appointment as manager but the 27-year-old’s influence appears to be on the wane.

A series of injuries may well have played their part, but his lack of attacking contributions is now representing a real concern.

With just one goal to his name all season, Odegaard is struggling to justify his place in the team, especially with summer signing Eberechi Eze chomping at the bit to prove his worth.

‘Odegaard could be the problem,’ Scholes told The Overlap when discussing Arsenal’s goalscoring issues from open play.

‘Odegaard wants to play as a No.10 and if you’re not playing good football it’s his job to make your team play good football. Good attacking football. I don’t think he does it.

‘He drops into midfield. Look, I like him, technically he’s brilliant and good to watch. But he drops into midfield. I played No.10, if they come into the midfield area and play where Roy should be he’d say ‘f*** off’ get up there. He doesn’t do it enough in those areas where it wins games.’

Odegaard has also struggled to build up any sort of chemistry with summer signing Viktor Gyokeres who has been starved of the kind of service he feasted on during his prolific spell at Sporting Lisbon.

‘You think about the teams we’ve watched win the league like Liverpool and Man City, exciting to watch,’ Scholes added.

‘They’re exciting because of people like David Silva, Phil Foden receiving the ball on the edge of the box where it’s important.

‘It also kills the centre forward he’s got nobody to play with. They are imperative to make your team play good football.’

Gyokeres was back on the scoresheet last night as Arsenal rounded off their Champions League campaign with an eighth straight victory.

The fixture represented the first opportunity to pair Gyokeres in attack with Kai Havertz, who started his first game since the final match of last season and the pair struck up an instant understanding.

‘It’s a great feeling to score goals, and to help the team,’ said Gyokeres. ‘I think we could’ve performed better overall in the game, but of course I’m always happy with scoring.

‘It was great to have Kai back, and he performed great this game, even though he only played 45, so yeah, it went really well, I think.’