Arsenal’s night of misery against Liverpool took another late twist as Martin Odegaard was spotted in a lengthy conversation with Jurgen Klopp.
The Real Madrid loanee was left raging at the full-time whistle as the Gunners’ trusts of a top-six wrap-up took however another blow with a 3-0 domestic defeat.
It took until the moment half for the champions to open the scoring, but by the time Diogo Jota got the first, their dominance had been clear to see.
Liverpool controlled ownership and had about all of the chances, on a lowering night for Mikel Arteta’s men.
After the full-time whistle, Odegaard was seen talking and embracing Red’s boss Klopp, in a clip that has naturally since gone viral over social media.
Jurgen Klopp & Martin Odegaard speaking at full-time 👀 pic.twitter.com/wunBH4hG7K
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 3, 2021
Arsenal is holding out hope of signing the Real midfielder beyond the end of this season, although that appears unlikely if they are unable to secure European football.
Their most obvious route of now doing that is to win the Europa League, which would earn them a place in next season’s Champions League.
Klopp’s men meanwhile have turned their campaign around in a matter of weeks, picking up their third win on the spin on either side of the international break.
They now face Odegaard’s parent club in the Champions League in midweek, looking to continue their mini-resurgence.
Speaking after the game, Arteta admitted he was “in shock” at the desperate performance from his players after a positive build-up to the game at the Emirates.
“At the moment I am in shock. I didn’t expect that, the way the team trained, but it happened today, it is the reality.
“It is a challenge and a challenge brings an opportunity, and in football, you have an opportunity a few days later, and if you have courage and you have big balls and you represent a club like this, you have to stand up in the next game and take it.
He added: “It is my fault. I have to set the team to play differently. Congratulations to Liverpool, who were exceptional today, they can play at that level.
“The margin is incredibly high. The standard has to be much higher for this football club. We could not put three passes together. Too many simple things were not done right and when you do that against this opponent you get punished.”
