Gunners fans immediately speculated over the reason behind Arteta’s decision, but it’s now emerged that the Arsenal skipper ‘felt something’ in the latter stages. Post-match, Arteta was asked about bringing the Norwegian midfielder off and revealed: “He was feeling something.”

“We can’t control [City]. What we can control is that when we have the run we had when you win, win, win, win, it’s easy,” the Spaniard explained.

“The moment is now. After this blow, it’s how we react.

We have the best opportunity to react against Bayern Munich on Wednesday. The team has to show it.

If you want to win, you have to overcome these situations. With the games we had, this was going to happen.

It is now about how we react. This is in our control.”

Arteta also called on his players to show character and become leaders – and they’ll especially need to if Odegaard spends any time on the sidelines. “If one result is going to do that [damage confidence] then we are not strong enough, that’s very simple,” he stated.

“We had one of the best performances in the first half that we had this season by far against a really good team, it should have been three or four or more. It didn’t happen in the second half, momentum shifted, we could not control and generate what we did in the first half.

“We struggled, we conceded two very poor goals and we lost the game so congratulations to the opponent and now is the moment to stand up as a leader, as a character to make yourself count because when you win and win and win and win for four months, it’s very simple to do it. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.

If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like.” Could Arsenal beat Bayern Munich without Martin Odegaard?

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