Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard admits team BBQs are helping build their team spirit.

Odegaard says such regular meet-ups are good for dressing room harmony.

He told arsenal.com: "I would say I'm quite close to most of the players.

“Maybe Mo Elneny I would say is one of my closer friends in the team, but it's hard to say just one, because it's a really good group here now. I connect well with all of them basically, there is a good atmosphere in the dressing room with all the players and the staff too.

"We have quite a lot of gatherings, team barbecues and things like that, and people bring their kids, their wives so we all know each others' families as well, I think that's really important to build a team. There's a great spirit within the whole club.

“For example, Bukayo lives quite near to me so we will get together to watch football or things like that, we are friends off the pitch as well."

Odegaard also said: “Already, throughout my whole career, even from a young age, I've always played alongside people from different places and backgrounds. It's always nice to see those different cultures, learning more from different ways of thinking, different mentalities and approach. You can learn a lot from that, how they look at life and the more you know about that, the more you can add to your own personality.

“Through football I've picked up some languages too. I speak Spanish and a bit of Dutch, because I played there for a while. You learn some other words from being in the dressing room too. I've picked up a bit of Portuguese, from the Brazilian players, and it's quite similar to Spanish anyway.

“The players ask me about life in Norway too," he adds. “The main thing they seem to think about Norway is that it's always cold! They are shocked when I tell them it's warm in the summer and I like to spend my summers there. That seems to be what we talk about most often to be fair!"