Arsenal: Gabriel Martinelli ready now, nevermind later

Gabriel Martinelli was named Arsenal’s Player of the Month for January. The 18-year-old is ready to be a star now, nevermind in the future.

When Arsenal signed an unknown Brazilian teenager for peanuts, the usual derision arose from within and outside the fanbase. ‘Here we go again, the Gunners buying a nobody when they need a somebody.’ The typical jokes circled around social media.

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Well, little did anyone know that that teenage Brazilian prospect would turn into Gabriel Martinelli, the club’s second-highest scorer this season and a young sensation that looks set to take both the Premier League and world football by storm. For Martinelli, the future is bright, and then some.

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But while his career prospects are staggering, that is to belie his efficacy in the here and now. Martinelli is not just ‘one for the future’; he is ready to make an impact now.

New Arsenal signing Pablo Mari, who also arrived from Brazilian football, a clear impact of having Edu Gaspar, someone who has worked extensively in Brazil since retiring, as your technical director, was asked about Martinelli this week. His comments were rather telling:

"“He has exploded on to the scene and is showing that he’s a great player with a lot of talent. Obviously he’s still very young, but he’s already had a taste of playing at the top level and he’s doing very well. I’ll say congratulations when I meet him, but now he just needs to keep it up and work hard because he’s really talented. Martinelli has shown he is a bit different to any other player in terms of his ability. He has great vision and there’s real talent there in terms of his dribbling and his ability to choose the right play.”"

Mari says that Martinelli is very talented, of course, but he also highlights that he is ‘playing at the top level and he’s doing very well.’ Martinelli is shining now, not just showing that he will shine later, and that is quite the statement of brilliance from a young player.

On Wednesday, Martinelli was named Arsenal’s January Player of the Month. He scored twice in the month, once in a 1-1 draw against Sheffield United before notching a dazzling, driving 67-yard wonder-goal against Chelsea, in which he put N’Golo Kante on his backside and beautifully slid a finish past the stranded Kepa to help the Gunners snatch a point at Stamford Bridge despite being down a man for over an hour.

He now has three Premier League goals on the season, as well as seven in the Europa League and EFL Cup combined. He has pushed Nicolas Pepe out of the starting XI, a player who also arrived in the summer but with significantly heftier expectations, and is relishing the inside-forward role that Mikel Arteta asks him to play.

Martinell is a brilliant talent and it is important to remember that he is only 18 and is still learning and tuning his trade. But while looking to the future is important, he is also ready in the here and now, and Arsenal and Arteta would be wise to exploit that.