Tottenham face Arsenal in the north London derby this weekend, and it’s fair to say that Spurs are heading into this game as underdogs.
Indeed, Tottenham have been up and down all season long – losing 4-0 to Newcastle last time out, while Arsenal seem to really be hitting their stride at the moment.
The Gunners have been brilliant as of late – hammering Chelsea 5-0 this week, and Tottenham will have to be ready for an onslaught this weekend.
Speaking to Squawka, Alan Smith has bene previewing this game, and he reckons that Tottenham will be seriously worried about one Arsenal player in particular.
The Arsenal player Tottenham will worry about
Smith stated that Arsenal will be worried about Martin Odegaard heading into this game.
“Odegaard is at the heart of everything that’s been good about Arsenal lately, and most of the season to be honest. And Spurs will be talking about him, how to get tight, how to stop him making Arsenal tick. Because if he gets on the ball and starts threading those little passes through and the movement obviously off the ball is great, then Spurs might have problems. So that’s definitely an area,” Smith said.
“The Spurs full-backs do bomb on, and at times maybe there’ll be gaps behind for [Leandro] Trossard and [Bukayo] Saka you’d imagine. But Odegaard would be at the forefront of [Ange] Postecoglou’s thoughts going into it.”
Martin Odegaard is on fire
Smith says that Spurs will be focused on Odegaard heading into this game, and he may not be wrong.
Indeed, Tottenham would be foolish to ignore the type of threat that the £30m man is posing at the moment.
The Norwegian is, quite simply, on fire at the moment, and if Tottenham don’t figure out a way to stop him, they will seriously suffer.
Odegaard may well be the difference-maker in this weekend’s derby.