By Efosa Taiwo

Martin Odegaard has said that last month’s defeat to Manchester City made Arsenal a better team in their pursuit of Premier League and Europa League glory.

Arsenal lost 3-1 at home to City on Feb. 15 seeing Pep Guardiola’s side move to the top of the table for the first time since November, although having played a game more.

The defeat was a major blow to Arsenal’s quest for domestic glory, but showed character ever since as they went on to win their next five games, and restore a five-point lead over City.

When asked about Arsenal’s response to that City defeat, Odegaard told ESPN: “That’s what we’ve done the whole season. They’ll always be people talking about us.

“When we had some injuries there were people talking but we’ve just had the same focus the whole time. It was the same after Man City. I think a lot of things we did in the game we did well and we didn’t do that the last time we played them so we showed we have improved a lot.

“We just came in the next day wanting to bounce back and make sure we got even better. I think that’s the main thing about this team, we’re so hungry to improve every day.”

After a 2-2 draw in the first leg, Arsenal face Sporting Lisbon at Emirates Stadium on Thursday in their Europa League round-of-16 tie aiming to reach the quarterfinals for the second time in three seasons.