Former West Ham manager David Moyes and former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker spoke on the BBC’s Football Daily podcast about the possible reasons behind Arsenal’s three-game winless run in the Premier League.

Reo-Coker: “Martin Odegaard is a big miss for them because he directs everything they do. I’m not saying they’re a one-man team but when you have a player who can be that effective in controlling the flow of the game, it’s not something that can be easily replaced.”

“And personally I still believe that striker is missing.”

Moyes: “The one thing I always say is that the manager knows better than anyone else, he knows what the training ground is like, how the players are performing and whether it will work or not.

“Mikel, if Arsenal need a striker, I’m sure they’ll get him.

“But it’s easy for people in the media and the fans to say ‘we need a new striker’; in fact it’s very difficult to find one at the moment. The Lewandowskis, the Lukakus, the people who are known for a lot of goals, they’re fewer strikers coming to the end of their careers at the moment.

“Odegaard has made such a difference to how Arsenal have played and played against over the last few years, Odegaard has always been the one who has been a real problem to deal with.

“Mikel will look at it and say they have to win games without this player because they might lose him again for whatever reason. Even if you bring him back after a semi-long injury you can’t expect him to come back straight away. He did his best straight away.”

“Mikel will find a way and I think Arsenal will come very close to the championship again. They have a top-level team.”

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