Arsenal: Gabriel Martinelli the Alexandre Lacazette we were looking for?

Arsenal like their link-up strikers, which is what Alexandre Lacazette is supposed to be, but is Gabriel Martinelli the better option in the role?

Ever since Alexandre Lacazette arrived at Arsenal, he has been compared to Roberto Firmino. For a lot of reasons. For starters, they don’t score an overwhelming number of goals. They are there for what they do outside of the goals.

They create, they link-up play, the tie things together and make potential scoring chances for themselves into even easier scoring chances for their teammates. For Lacazette, that teammate is primarily Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Which is perhaps why he’s not been able to match Firmino, because the latter has Salah and Mane to link up with.

That said, Lacazette has had trouble settling into that role, and I wonder if it’s just because it’s been such a rotating role for him. Sometimes he’s the lone striker with very little goal scoring support and sometimes he plays the supplier. It’s hard to gel into a role that you don’t play that often.

Still, the idea of a link-up striker goes way back. It’s what Lucas Perez was, when Arsene Wenger couldn’t get Lacazette right away. And let’s be honest, it’s what Olivier Giroud was too. Just all different kinds.

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Gabriel Martinelli may be one too.

In the early going of his time here, he’s shown a tremendous proficiency for scoring goals, yes, but he’s just as good and creating the, as he’s averaging a chance and a half per game. He also set up the equalizing goal against Southampton, same against Standard Liege, and he has just shown a really intelligent eye for knowing how best to facilitate the attack, even if that doesn’t mean him scoring directly.

Which I think may be another one-upper that Martinelli has over Lacazette. When Lacazette gets the ball, his first objective is to score. If that doesn’t materialize, he looks to pass. For Martinelli, he doesn’t have a personal favorite. He takes whatever looks best for the moment. If that means popping off a shot, great. If it means trusting it to someone else, also great. There is no priority here, no choosing favorites.

And that’s what I see in Roberto Firmino too. He doesn’t care one way or another who puts the ball in the net, as long as it ends up there.

Of course, to explore this further, we’d need to see more of Martinelli as a striker, and that’s still a debate.