Martin Odegaard warns Arsenal to expect 'a lot of time-wasting' from Porto ahead of crunch Champions League tie

The high-flying Gunners suffered a shock defeat in Portugal last month in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 fixture as they went down 1-0 against Porto. Since then, the club have registered three consecutive wins in the Premier League, scoring 12 goals and conceded only twice.

Club captain Odegaard admitted that Arsenal did have some flaws in their game in the first leg, although he claimed that they have learned from their mistakes. He also warned his team to expect Porto to waste a lot of time at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the all-important game, Odegaard said: "There are so many different things going on in each game. This game [against Porto] was one where the ball was out of play a lot and a lot of stop and start and restarts and all this. I think you saw that also against Brentford and I think we dealt with it in a brilliant way. I think that was a good practice.

"We already showed in that game what we learned in Porto, hopefully, we can do that even better on Tuesday. First of all, we want to play our game. We don't want to focus too much on them and what they are doing. We want to play our game and that's the main thing. We had to deal with a lot of different situations, a lot of time-wasting. We had to control our emotions the whole game and I think we did that brilliantly."

Since the brief winter break in January, the north London club have enjoyed a stunning run of form, winning eight out of nine matches, with their only defeat coming in the Champions League. They are currently leading the Premier League title race on goal difference and are tied on 64 points with Liverpool.

After facing the Portuguese giants in the Champions League on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta's side will next face Manchester City in a blockbuster Premier League clash after the international break on March 31.