Mikel Arteta already has one no-brainer decision for his Arsenal lineup vs Sporting

This might just be the biggest five days of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal tenure, so he has plenty of key decisions to make. Sunday's trip to the Etihad looms large but, first and foremost, the Gunners need to see off Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-finals, 1-0 up following the first leg at Estádio José Alvalade.

Arteta is set to be without five guaranteed starters, namely Riccardo Calafiori, Jurriën Timber, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka, which is obviously an enormous blow. Thus, he will be looking for others to come to the fore, something Gabriel Martinelli has done regularly during this Champions League campaign thus far.

Champions League 2025/26: Players best goals per 90 ratio

Amazingly, in this season's Champions League, only Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon boast a better goals per 90 ratio than Martinelli tally of 1.06. Meantime, despite only seeing 510 minutes of action in the competition, a mere seven players have netted with greater frequency than the Brazilian, needing one more to match Victor Osimhen and two to equal the totals of Erling Braut Håland and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

During the league phase, he became the first Arsenal player in history to score in five successive Champions League appearances, on target against Athletic Club, Olympiacos, Atlético Madrid, Bayern Munich and Club Brugge, as well as Kairat later on. This is in complete contrast to his Premier League form, netting only once across his last 28 appearances, bagging the last-gasp equaliser against Manchester City in September; how crucial could that prove to be?

So, how does this compare to Arsenal's highest-ever scorers in a single Champions League season?

Arsenal players 5+ goals in a Champions League campaign

Note: Statistics do not include qualifiers.

Of the 11 times an Arsenal player has scored five or more goals in a Champions League season, five of them are Thierry Henry, including the record of seven set in 2001/02 and the following year. Viktor Gyökeres is currently on four goals, so will join this list by netting against his former side, while Martinelli would match Henry's record, should he find the net against the Portuguese champions.

His tally of a goal involvement every 63 minutes is already the best of any Arsenal played to have accumulated 500+ minutes in a Champions League season. So, why is the Brazilian so much better in Europe than domestically. Well, there is a lot more space for him to attack into. The low blocks that Arteta's team regularly encounter in the Premier League do not suit Martinelli's style, but when European sides, who are usually more adventurous, push forward a bit more, this leaves gaps at the back.

Well, this will surely be the case when Sporting come to town on Wednesday, considering that Rui Borges' side are a goal down from the first leg in Lisbon. Full-backs Iván Fresneda and Maxi Araújo often push forward, as we saw eight nights ago, which should vacate space for Martinelli to exploit, hence why he is the obvious choice to start in attack.

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