Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that club captain Martin Odegaard is 'carrying a little thing that has not been comfortable' after dropping him from the side on Saturday.
Odegaard had featured in 71 of the previous 72 Premier League games prior to the 5-0 battering of Sheffield United but was forced to watch the Gunners' most recent league outing from the substitutes bench. The skipper was not the only notable name to be dropped, with centre-back Gabriel and former No.1 goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale also both sitting on the sidelines.
Arteta has a number of injury headaches at the moment, with Thomas Partey facing an extended period out of action, while star striker Gabriel Jesus was forced to withdraw from Tuesday's win away at Sevilla before full-time due to a hamstring issue.
Odegaard is now the latest concern from a fitness perspective, with Arteta also explaining that the sheer amount of minutes in the Norwegian's legs so far this term also played a part in the decision to bench him. "We looked at the all the minutes everyone has played over the last few weeks and some of them have played an enormous amount of minutes," the Spaniard claimed.
"Martin has as well been carrying a little thing that wasn't very comfortable in the games. We have players with enormous quality and we have to trust them, and we believe it was the right day to do so."
Pressed for comment on Odegaard's intense workload, Arteta added: "I think he has endured a lot. The last couple of weeks have been really good for the team.
"He’s playing every game, as you said, and he had a difficult period with the national team. It was a big blow for them with what happened - but this is football. He needs to get on with that. He’s a massive player for us."
For all of Odegaard's remarkable technical flair and prowess, it was not like the Gunners missed him on the day. Lining up with an attacking midfield pairing of Kai Havertz and Emile Smith Rowe, the latter of whom making his first league start since May of last year, Arsenal fared just fine.
Eddie Nketiah was the star of the show, netting his first-ever Premier League hat-trick to put the hosts 3-0 up. By this stage, the Blades had long resigned themselves to defeat, but goals from Fabio Vieira and Takehiro Tomiyasu would have done little to boost the confidence of the visitors.