Martin Odegaard insists he and Erling Haaland remain close friends and his clash with Mikel Arteta earlier this season is "something that can happen.". Manchester City and Arsenal will renew their rivalry this weekend with the two teams sharing the spoils when they met back in September. It needed a stoppage-time strike from John Stones to deny the Gunners at the Etihad before tempers boiled over. It included a verbal jibe from Haaland, who told the Arsenal boss to "stay humble" before other players got involved after the final whistle. The Norwegian will therefore be public enemy No.1 when the champions head to north London this Sunday.

Odegaard, whilst rivals with Haaland at club level, is a team-mate on the international scene and he's looked to pour water on the flare up, insisting that emotions are heightened on the pitch. The Arsenal captain said: “We are good friends. Him and a few of the other boys from the national team, we have a little group chat, so we stay in touch there and we speak every now and then. We haven’t spoken about the game, but he is a good friend, so I speak to him.

“I think in football, games like this, the emotions are so high and the adrenaline is there and everything. So, that’s something that can happen on the pitch and then when you walk off the pitch, then you are done with it. It is not something I think too much about. “But then, I think a lot of the players know each other from the national team - England, Brazil, me with Erling - so on the pitch and off the pitch it is a bit different. When we are on the pitch, then it’s a good battle.”.

City boss Pep Guardiola has all but ruled his team out of the title race. Haaland's form nosedived after the Arsenal draw, albeit he has found his goalscoring touch once again since we entered 2025. Arsenal can ill afford to drop any more points if they want to chase down Liverpool. The Gunners won this fixture last season, owing to a deflected Gabriel Martinelli strike late in the game. Arteta has said: "The business is to be better than them. That’s it. The only thing I review is what happened during that match, how competitive it gets is normal when two big teams want to win the game. Nothing else from that side.".

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