Martin Odegaard breaks silence on VAR and disallowed Arsenal goal vs Aston Villa

The Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard found it difficult to hit the back of the net at Villa Park on Saturday. Doing so would have seen all the talk of refereeing and VAR decision-making go right out of the window.

For some time it has been said that Arsenal should be taking the games away from the power the officials hold. Yet, it is admittedly very difficult to do when consistently and frequently the Gunners find themselves on the end of such mistakes.

Odegaard remains one of the more composed figures in the squad when it comes to his interviews. His manager continues to await news of a hearing regarding his outburst following a similar game at Newcastle – the only other defeat the Gunners’ league season so far.

Asked whether the defeat did indeed strike a resemblance to Tyneside he was quick to turn the attention back to his side, saying: “We have to focus on ourselves. We can't think too much about the other stuff.

“We have to look at ourselves, look at what we could have done better and I think especially in front of the goal, we should have done a bit better and in some periods of the game we should have controlled it a bit more. As I said we did enough to get a result but we have to be more ruthless in front of goal.”

Arsenal did manage to find the net twice in the game but both times they were ruled out for an offside and a handball infringement by Kai Havertz. It has sparked debate whether the rule, which was applied correctly I have to admit, is right.

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When asked for his thoughts on the goal he said: “I haven't seen it again. I heard it