Martin Odegaard blasts Arsenal teammates after home defeat to AFC Bournemouth

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has slammed his own Arsenal teammates after Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to AFC Bournemouth.

Mikel Arteta was expected to make many changes to his XI with one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg clash at PSG.

But the Arsenal boss surprisingly decided to take a huge risk, making just two changes for the Premier League game against the south coast club.

By comparison, PSG made 10 changes to their XI for their Ligue 1 fixture against Strasbourg, with many stars enjoying a rest before the second leg.

Arsenal’s decision to go with a virtually full-strength XI against the Cherries backfired as Andoni Iraola’s side produced a stunning comeback victory.

Declan Rice fired Arsenal in front but Bournemouth managed to turn things around thanks to second-half goals from Dean Huijsen and Evanilson.

Odegaard was left furious over the two goals Arsenal conceded and took aim at his own teammates after the game, telling the Arsenal website: ‘The second half was very far from good enough from us.

‘It’s not acceptable to concede two goals like that. It’s something we have to talk about and make sure we improve.’

The result made history for Bournemouth, who had lost all eight of their Premier League matches at the Emirates before this weekend’s clash, with the club winning at the north London stadium for the first time.

Bournemouth’s win also means they’ve completed a league double over Arsenal for the first time, having beaten them 2-0 at the Vitality Stadium back in October.

‘We’re very disappointed,’ Odegaard added. ‘We wanted to come here and have a really good game, get a win – for our position in the league and also to create the momentum into next week.

‘I think we controlled pretty much everything until they scored and then it was a bit too chaotic, and a bit wild and we lost momentum. We didn’t really play our game after that.’

Odegaard is keen to move on after Arsenal’s painful defeat and wants the team to use the ‘anger and frustration’ from the result in their game at PSG.

‘We’re disappointed now, but we have to move on and be strong and stick together and prepare for a massive game,’ Odegaard said.

‘It’s a massive game. That’s the good thing. When you’re disappointed now and you’re angry and frustrated, you can use all those emotions into Wednesday.

‘We know what we’re playing for, it’s a massive game, we have to stick together and create energy and be ready.’

Arsenal head to the Parc des Princes 1-0 down after losing the Champions League semi-final first leg at home on Tuesday.

Gunners legend Thierry Henry hasn’t given up hope of Arsenal progressing in the French capital but admits PSG were ‘far superior’ in the first meeting.