Arsenal: Where does Gabriel Martinelli fit in Arteta’s plans?

Not long ago, Gabriel Martinelli was seen as the saving grace for Arsenal Football Club. The young star taking to football in England like a duck to water, scoring goals and providing some unforgettable moments. Jurgen Klopp labelled him as the ‘talent of the century’ in 2019.

However, a knee injury in June 2020 that saw him miss 30 games has severely derailed his development and in doing so, the 20-year-old has fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates, something that seemed unthinkable when he first began breaking through.

Before his setback, Martinelli was a breath of fresh air for Arsenal in its post-Arsene Wenger era. Martinelli played 26 games in all competitions, scoring ten goals and providing four assists before the injury struck.

Coming back from the injury was a long process and given how highly rated he was, a cautious approach was taken. Despite this, when Martinelli did return, he wasn’t the same player, playing 23 games and scoring just two goals in all appearances with one of them coming against Crystal Palace in the second to last game of the campaign.

Where does Gabriel Martinelli fit in Mikel Arteta’s plans at Arsenal and what comes next for the Brazilian winger who isn’t playing?

Now with the Brazilian being fully fit, it was expected that he would be seeing more game time; a gradual integration designed to easy him back into the fold. That hasn’t gone as planned.

Martinelli started both of Arsenal’s opening two games of the season against Brentford and Chelsea when the squad was decimated by injury and COVID. It was his chance to stamp his authority on the first team.

Playing 79 minutes in the loss to Brentford as a left-winger, Martinelli never really looked like getting into the game as the Gunners were soundly beaten by the Bees. Then onto Chelsea where he was played through the middle and like most of his teammates, was largely ineffective. He had got two chances to show Arteta he was worthy of starting and both times didn’t produce when needed. There was plenty of knee-jerk response to two performances littered with mitigation.

But what since? What is next for Martinelli?

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