Odegaard makes worrying admission about major Arsenal problem

The Norwegian star handed Arsenal the lead against Everton on Monday, only to see his side surrender their advantage again.

Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard has claimed a mental problem was to blame for the club’s 2-1 defeat to Everton.

For the second game in succession, Mikel Arteta’s side blew a 1-0 lead to end up on the losing side. Odegaard was the man who broke the deadlock at Goodison Park, moments before half-time. However, in the final 11 minutes of normal time, Richarlison and Demarai Gray scored to snatch all three points for Everton.

“I think it is [a mindset problem],” Odegaard admitted to Sky Sports after the match.

“When you’re leading 1-0 you get afraid to lose the win and, in my opinion, that’s what we did wrong today. You go for the second goal and that was the intention, but we didn’t manage to do that on the pitch.”

‘We should have been better’

A third defeat in four games has seen Arsenal slip down to seventh in the Premier League table, four points outside of the top-four.

Odegaard added: “It’s a hard one to take. I think in general we were not at the level we needed to be at today.

“We had some good moments, but we have to do much better. We should have been better.

“It’s hard to say. That’s just how it is sometimes. It’s hard to say exactly what happened. We have to do better when we have that lead. We stopped playing and gave them the game they wanted to play.”

Arsenal return to action on Saturday at home to Southampton in the Premier League.