Martin Odegaard has admitted that Arsenal’s players do feel the ‘nerves’ circulated by their fans at the Emirates Stadium.
However, the Gunners skipper insists that the dressing room has the resilience to cope with the pressure – and praised the overall ‘unbelievable’ energy that the supporters brings.
It comes after Roy Keane accused Arsenal’s fans of transmitting their ‘nervous’ energy to Mikel Arteta’s men after their recent 3-2 defeat by Manchester United in north London.
Since then, Arsenal have beaten Kairat at home in the Champions League, Leeds away in the Premier League, and Chelsea at the Emirates in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Asked if they sense the nerves in the 60,704-capacity ground, Odegaard told Men in Blazers Media Network: ‘Sometimes you can feel it as it’s a lot of people. You really feel that atmosphere.
‘Whenever you come to the Emirates, the atmosphere is always amazing. You get that energy from the supporters.
‘Of course they’re going to get nervous at some point if we are defending a lead or whatever, but that’s part of football and most of the time we get that energy from the stadium and that’s what we want.
‘Nerves are a part of football and I think you just have to be able to deal with it at this level. It’s part of the game. That’s alright. Most of the time the energy is unbelievable and they feed that to us.’
He added: ‘For me personally and also for a lot of the players in the team, we’ve been in this title race now for, for a lot of years.
‘I feel like that’s given us more experience, you know, and, and we can use that, you know, every single season we’ve grown as a group. I think every individual has grown more experienced, more mature. And, of course, with the squad we have this year, we feel like, we’re in really good place.
‘We’re just going to keep fighting and and keep pushing every single day. And then, yeah, we are believing in what we’re doing and the squad.
‘We’ve grown as a team, as a group. We’ve been through a lot. And, and the work we do every single day, I think that’s the, the biggest thing, you know, I work every single day on the training ground.
‘What I see every single day, you know, that’s what gives me and is giving me the confidence that we’re going to do it. So, yeah, it’s great to be a part of that. And, and we believe that we have, we’re in a good position now, and we just push on from here.’
Arsenal can afford to be imperfect in the run-in – they’ve got a six-point gap over Manchester City with 14 games to go.
They have finished second three times in a row but are trophyless since their FA Cup victory in 2020.
Keane recently hit out at them after the Manchester United defeat, saying: ‘The fans seem nervous, as if they’re afraid to embrace the challenge. They’re more concentrating on not losing the game.
‘It looked like the goal set Arsenal back a little bit, they definitely looked tentative, a little bit nervous. The fans seem nervous, almost like they are afraid to embrace the challenge.
‘I don’t know where Declan [Rice] is going there, the ball goes back to [Martin] Zubimendi a bit too quickly really. He’s got to do better.
‘A bit of calmness, a bit of composure. And United obviously have had a lot of encouragement. You can see it here again, Arsenal, just even trying to keep it at the back. They looked a bit nervous at the back. Lovely, lovely finish and United deserved that. There’s definitely tension in the air and they’re not dealing with it.’
