Arteta backs Odegaard to deliver for Arsenal at Newcastle despite recent injury struggles | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says he has no doubts Martin Odegaard can deliver at St James’ Park if called upon despite his recent injury struggles.

The Gunners skipper has been struggling with a shoulder injury of late but is set to train ahead of the game against Newcastle with a view to being involved.

And Arteta has suggested he can play a key role this weekend despite his recent problems as his side look to put their recent woes at St James’ Park behind them.

“Martin certainly has the capacity not to do too much and not to train too much and go in two days and perform at the highest level because he’s naturally a super gifted fit player,” Arteta said.

Arsenal have lost their last three games at Newcastle without scoring a goal.

But Arteta insists his side have done enough in those games to deserve more, while also accepting they need to improve.

“We have won and we have lost as well and the last few results there, they could have been very different,” he said. “I mean, when we played the second game in the semi-final after two minutes, Martin Odegaard is in front of goal, he scores that goal, we’re talking about something else. So it’s going to be those moments that we need to be clinical and efficient to win those games.

“We certainly need to do things better and we’re going to talk from today, especially the things that in my opinion are going to make the difference to win the game and take the game as much as possible in that direction.

“I would go to efficiency a lot because a lot of times we have played a game that was very similar to, in my opinion, give us the best chance to win it, but we haven’t been able to seal it.

“That’s a demand we have done at home, we did it in precision against them, so we are more than capable to do it and that’s the confidence that we’re going to play the game with.

“We’re going to be trying to be as dominant as we possibly can always, with a lot of attacking players and attacking threat, and to create that threat from various ways because it’s not only one way, it’s a lot of ways that we can hurt them and we’re going to try in different ways.”