Arsenal star Martin Odegaard has suffered an injury ahead of the game against Tottenham Hotspur.
The first North London Derby of the season is scheduled to take place on Sunday, and it is a huge game for both clubs.
Spurs haven’t had a great start to the season, winning just one of their first three games. Arsenal dropped points in their last fixture and are desperate to avoid a repeat of that.
That makes the derby a really exciting one, but Arsenal have suffered a huge blow – Martin Odegaard injured his ankle while on international duty.
The Norwegian’s availability for the game against Spurs is now doubtful, and that should give Tottenham a boost considering that Declan Rice and Mikel Merino are also ruled out.
However, fans of Ange Postecoglou’s side are all saying something surprising on social media.
Tottenham fans react after Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard gets injured
Arsenal fans are now really worried about the North London Derby. Losing Rice due to suspension was bad enough, but the thought of Odegaard being ruled out is just frightening.
You’d imagine that Tottenham fans would be backing their side to win the game now, but many on social media surprisingly seem convinced that their side will actually lose.
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Reacting to the news about Odegaard’s injury, one Spurs fan said: “The rest of Arsenal’s players will play out their socks to beat us.”
Another tweeted: “Gabriel header, Saka counter-attack goal, then they play the dirtiest low block with six defenders and two DMs. It ends 1-2.”
“We’ll still find a way to mess it up, don’t worry,” wrote another Spurs fan.
Another Tottenham supporter tweeted: “Means nothing, they’ll still beat us!”
Arsenal have three options to replace Odegaard if he’s ruled out
Odegaard is one of the first names on Mikel Arteta’s team sheet, and if he’s unavailable, Arsenal will be significantly weaker.
The Gunners boss will have to find a way to replace the Norway international, but the two most natural alternatives are no longer at the club – Emile Smith Rowe was sold to Fulham and Fabio Vieira has been loaned out to Porto.
That leaves Arsenal with very few options in that number 10 role – we think there are only three players Arteta can use there for the North London Derby: