Arsenal: Gabriel Martinelli doesn’t need any help being exciting

Unai Emery is drumming up Gabriel Martinelli’s chances at Arsenal, but none of this is necessary, we’re all as excited as can be already.

Arsenal have still only made one signing this summer, and it was the £6m move for Brazilian starlet Gabriel Martinelli. He is the first signing of the Edu era, and thus far into the preseason, he’s proven to be a massively talented young man.

Of course, Unai Emery has been asked plenty of questions about him, and his answers seem to hint at something we should already know—that Martinelli has a pretty high chance of making it into the Arsenal first team this season.

If this was meant to drum up excitement, it didn’t work. Not because it isn’t exciting news, but because we all should have already known this. What’s the point of a new signing if there’s no chance they can make it into the first-team?

And dare I go down the same road again, evoking the similarities between him and Matteo Guendouzi? Maybe I’ve played that card too many times, but let me go ahead and say really quick that if it happened once, it can happen again.

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It’s more than that though. From the moment Gabriel Martinelli was linked to a move to the Emirates, he had so much going for him. For starters, as I said, he’s the first signing of the summer, and thus far the only. That’s a big deal, even if the price isn’t there to make us think it is.

But the fact that Edu is staking himself on this young man is also a big deal.

Think about it, Edu is coming into this position with eyes on making a good impression, and his first move, without a moment of hesitation, is to sign up this 18-year-old kid and make him the first signing under his watch. He was so conclusive that the deal went through without so much as a blink. It was just done. And anyone who has been following the transfer market this summer knows, nothing is easy as far as this club and making purchases goes.

Seeing Gabriel Martinelli on the pitch in the red and white has only enforced, again, what we already knew. That this guy is a gem.

Nothing else matters until he takes the pitch in the regular season, and he will. And it will be with the first team.