Odegaard tells Arsenal to quickly shake off Fleetwood defeat

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has said, “we can’t feel sorry for ourselves” and we must move on fast after their shocking loss to fourth-tier Fleetwood in the League Cup.

The Premier League champions lost 5-3 on penalties after the fourth-round match ended 1-1 at Fleetwood’s home ground, Highbury.

Arsenal’s Bruno Guimaraes had his penalty saved by Jay Lynch during the shoot-out, while Fleetwood’s Conor Haughey scored the winning penalty.

Fleetwood’s Aaron Loupalo-Bi scored first in the first half. Viktor Gyokeres equalised after the break.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta made nine changes to his starting lineup. After a shaky first half, he brought on Odegaard for the second half.

The visitors, who were last season’s losing finalists, played better in the second half but still missed key chances. They also had teenage star Max Dowman sent off five minutes before the end of normal time.

“It’s very frustrating to go out,” Odegaard said. “Obviously, the way we’ve played was not on the level. We need to do much, much better than we did.

“Frustrating, but congratulations to Fleetwood and we look forward to the next game already and bounce back.

“They did well so we have to give them credit, but I think it was about us not being on our level. We need to do better. I thought we improved during the game, but again, we need to step up even more, so that’s a shame.”

Arsenal now has only days to recover from this defeat before facing a tough match against Liverpool on Sunday. The Gunners are currently level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City after last weekend.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to move on, we have a big game at the weekend, so bouncing back at the weekend is all we can do now,” Odegaard added.