Arsenal: Gabriel Martinelli must start every game from now until ever

Arsenal didn’t have a lot of highlights against Chelsea, but they only needed two. One of which came from who else but the indomitable Gabriel Martinelli.

Be warned, I’m about to blow a whole lot of things way out of proportion, but that’s okay, because you’re going to agree with me anyway once all is said and done. So let’s talk Arsenal and, in particular, let’s talk Gabriel Martinelli.

To recap, when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was suspended, I said that this was the moment for Gabriel Martinelli to prove that he should be starting, that Aubameyang should be sold, and that the new era can commence with the young Brazilian spearheading the attack.

I have been wrong before, so I wouldn’t have been that surprised to be wrong again. But with Gabriel Martinelli, things are always different. And they are proving more and more to be remarkably predictable as well. In the best way possible.

In the first match, against Sheffield, Martinelli did the ultimate Aubameyang thing. He had a poor match that he swept under the rug via a goal that came from just being in the right place at the right time.

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That’s what you want your elite players to do. Find a way to score even when you’re playing poorly. Boom. Done.

In the second match, the most recent one against Chelsea, we saw him doing even more. This wasn’t just right place, right time. This was “I’m seventy yards from goal with only N’Golo Kante to beat, I’m on a mission from God.”

Martinelli the Machine took the ball across nearly the entire length of the pitch and scored what appeared to be the easiest goal ever. All with Blues snapping at his heels. He never lost his composure. He never lost his cool. This is something that I question if even Aubameyang could have done. And I’m just just saying that to further my prerogative of ensuring that Martinelli never sits another game in his entire life.

What we saw from Martinelli was something only elite players do. The mindset to take that ball all the way himself and not give it up even at the end, is just magnificent. It’s truly special.

I don’t care who comes back or who we sign. I don’t care what stink it causes or who might have to make way. Martinelli is the No. 1 priority in this attack, and that’s a right he has now earned.