Mikel Arteta told one player just doesn’t deserve regular game time at Arsenal right now
Arsenal have started the 2024/25 season with back-to-back wins in the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta’s men picked up a dominant 2-0 victory against Wolves at the Emirates on the opening day. Then, the Gunners beat Aston Villa by the same scoreline away from home.
A number of Arsenal players have impressed in the first two games of the campaign, but there are one or two who have come under serious criticism.
Jay Bothroyd has had a go about one of them on The Optus Sport Football Podcast.
Pundit says Gabriel Martinelli doesn’t deserve to be playing at Arsenal now
Gabriel Martinelli hasn’t had the greatest start to the new Premier League season.
The Brazilian had a very difficult 2023/24 campaign, mainly due to injury issues. He scored just eight goals in all competitions, which is not good enough at all.
Martinelli is desperate to have a good season this time around, and he didn’t have a bad game by any means against Wolves on the opening day.
Against Villa, on the other hand, Martinelli did struggle on the left flank, and the fact that Trossard came on and scored with his first touch increased the criticism directed at the Brazilian.
Now, Bothroyd has jumped on the bandwagon and has claimed that Martinelli doesn’t deserve to be playing regularly for Arsenal right now.
He said: “I actually don’t think that Martinelli deserves to be playing.
“I think he’s living off his form from a couple of seasons ago, living off the name from a couple of seasons ago where he scored 17 goals or something like that.
“He played really well, but the way Arsenal play, Trossard suits that Arsenal team better because he comes into little pockets, he receives the ball in between the lines, he’s a good finisher – because that was a great finish.
“That was really clinical in a big time in the game.”
Martinelli will be the first one to admit that he hasn’t set the stage on fire over the last 12 months, but it’s not entirely his fault.
The 23-year-old doesn’t get much support on the left side of the pitch. Oleksandr Zinchenko or Jurrien Timber at left-back almost always invert, while Declan Rice rarely ever overlaps the winger.
That is all about to change.
Mikel Merino is a new Arsenal player, and the Spaniard is expected to be deployed in that Granit Xhaka role on the left side of the midfield.
In the last season in which Martinelli and Xhaka played together, the former scored 15 goals in the Premier League and had a brilliant season.
We expect the same thing to happen once Merino settles in and starts playing regularly.
