Why Gabriel Martinelli will be Arsenal’s key player against Liverpool

Nerves are already kicking in ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Anfield on Sunday. The team may be on a seven-game winning run and look unbeatable at the moment, but it is Anfield and Arsenal haven’t won there in the Premier League since 2012.

But, Arsenal had only won one of the last eight meetings between the clubs at the Emirates before their meeting in October and came away with a 3-2 win.

Liverpool are also a team on the slide. Two defeats and a draw in their last three games have seen them fall to eighth in the Premier League and Sunday will be their third game in the space of a week.

Much has been made about Jurgen Klopp’s decision to rest Trent Alexander Arnold, Andy Robertson and Mo Salah for their trip to Chelsea, and while Salah was definitely given a breather, you have to question whether it was a rest for their full-backs or whether they were dropped.

Just as TAA was made to look foolish by Jack Grealish, Robertson was given the run around by Riyad Mahrez last Saturday as Man City thumped the Reds 4-1.

Against Arsenal, Liverpool are going to face a very similar challenge, and with Gabriel Jesus back, Arsenal are going to be extremely strong on the left, and it is where the most obvious damage could be inflicted on Liverpool.

Why Gabriel Martinelli will be Arsenal’s key player against Liverpool

In October, Gabriel Martinelli gave Trent a nightmare all afternoon, and it took just 58 seconds for him to be caught ball-watching which allowed Martinelli to slip in behind him and slot home to put Arsenal up 1-0.

His defending hasn’t improved from that point. If anything, it has got worse, and Salah isn’t the most disciplined at working back to protect him. Trent’s lack of positional awareness means he’s often found in no man’s land, playing attackers onside, or in some cases, jogging back leaving huge amounts of space to exploit.

In this area, Arsenal have Jesus (or Leandro Trossard) and Martinelli switching positions, which is always tough to defend against, but also have Oleksandr Zinchenko in the half-space, and Granit Xhaka covering a lot of ground off the ball with over and underlaps from the left eight position to further stretch the defence.

The space created allows Martinelli to shine. His determination, direct play and outrageous pace mean defenders always have to be guarded against him, and his 13 goals, three assists and seven big chances created this season prove that.

Those numbers are further enhanced by his dribbling numbers; completing 1.7 dribbles per game, and winning an average of 3.4 ground duels per game. The numbers highlight his tenacity, and determination to win the ball back high up the park and keep Arsenal attacking, and while Alexander Arnold is only dribbled past 0.7 times per game, his lack of positional discipline often means he isn’t where he should be to force wingers into one-on-one duels.

In previous seasons, Jordan Henderson has dropped into the right back position to cover for Trent when he went forward, clean up loose balls and support him in one-on-one situations. But, Henderson played 57 games last season, turns 33 in June and has looked exhausted this year, meaning he can’t get around as easily as he once did.

With this in mind, you can’t rule out the possibility of Klopp using Joe Gomez at right back to sure things up in defence and prevent Arsenal from having space to work with. But, Gomez isn’t a natural full-back and he takes a lot away from their game going forward, so again, that solution isn’t going to scare Arsenal.

Sunday is a big opportunity for Arsenal, and Martinelli’s battle with Alexander Arnold could be the big story of the day if Arsenal get past the Anfield mind block.