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Why 2024/25 will be a crucial season for Gabriel Martinelli
- The Brazilian will need to seriously step up his game in the coming season
Gabriel Martinelli has shown throughout his Arsenal career that he is an immensely talented footballer but he suffered a dramatic drop in form last season.
After a brilliant 2022/23 campaign in which he netted 15 Premier League goals, equalling Roberto Firmino's record for most goals by a Brazilian in a single season, he struggled to replicate this form last season. He scored just six goals in the league and two in the Champions League in a massively underwhelming 2023/24 season.
Following on from his disappointing campaign last year, 2024-25 will be a crucial season for Gabriel Martinelli if he wants to keep his place in the Arsenal team.
Gabriel Martinelli's struggles last season
Martinelli struggled on the left side of Arsenal's attack throughout last season. He lost his place to the better-performing Leandro Trossard at times during the campaign.
He scored just six goals in the Premier League, underperforming an xG of 7.16. Added to this, his shot conversion rate was inferior to that of 2022/23. In 2023/24, Martinelli had a shot conversion rate of just 16.22%, placing him in the 67th percentile of players, whereas in the previous season, he had a rate of 27.78%, which put him in the 93rd percentile.
Martinelli also underwhelmed in other areas such as team play. He provided just four assists, one less than he did in 2022/23. He also completed just 24 of an attempted 101 crosses, giving him a cross completion rate of 23.76%.
A strong part of Martinelli's play is his incredible dribbling ability but he even found it difficult to display this throughout last season. The Brazilian completed 36 successful dribbles out of 98, with a success rate of 36.73%. Like his other statistics, this was once again inferior to his 51.75% success rate in 2022/23.
Overall, Gabriel Martinelli had a very poor season by his own standards. He showed his brilliant footballing ability at times but struggled to maintain consistency so never put together a good run of form.
Why 2024/25 will be a crucial season for Gabriel Martinelli
A winger with similar ability to the likes of Martinelli and Bukayo Saka has been on Arsenal's transfer agenda over the past few windows and it is possible they could finally make such a signing this summer.
The introduction of a new winger will immediately put Martinelli's place in the Arsenal team at risk and if he continues to underperform, it will not be long before it changes from risk to reality.
Nico Williams is one of the names mentioned among the Gunners' targets and after his brilliant displays throughout Spain's victorious Euro 2024 campaign, he would have no problem displacing Martinelli. However, he is just one of the possible players that Arsenal could target.
It is possible the Gunners could push back signing a new winger to next summer so Martinelli may end up having a season to improve without the fear of being displaced. However, with or without the introduction of a winger, Leandro Trossard is likely to still be in and around the team if he continues to perform strongly so Martinelli still faces the risk of falling down the pecking order.
If Arsenal do not sign a winger this summer and Martinelli still fails to perform this season, the motive behind signing one next year could go from being merely adding more quality to the squad to replacing the Brazil international completely. Mikel Arteta has already shown plenty of times in his time as Gunners boss that he is not afraid to replace underperforming players so this is a very real risk Martinelli could face.
The idea of Martinelli being replaced in the Arsenal team may sound ridiculous to some but if he fails to improve this season, it will become a genuine possibility very quickly. As a result, the 2024/25 campaign will be crucial for Gabriel Martinelli to get back to his best and prove to Arteta that he still deserves to be Arsenal's first-choice left winger and is capable of cutting it in a title-challenging team.
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