UEFA website ‘hints’ at late Gabriel Martinelli Arsenal squad number change in announcement
After announcing Arsenal’s Champions League squad on their website, UEFA also suggests Gabriel Martinelli may no longer the club’s number 11.
Martinelli has worn those two digits since the start of the 2022/23 season and has done so in the first three Premier League matches of this new campaign, plus throughout pre-season. Martin Odegaard had previously worn the No. 11 during his loan from Real Madrid before taking over from Dani Ceballos as the Arsenal number eight.
Lucas Torreira had also worn 11 for two seasons before leaving the club on loan. However, it is the previous incumbent, Mesut Ozil, who Martinelli now appears to be following in the footsteps of as far as shirt numbers are concerned.
Ozil wore the No. 11 for his first five seasons at Arsenal before switching to the No. 10 after Jack Wilshere left the club. His time wearing ten would be short-lived, lasting just two seasons before being omitted from the squad during the 2020/21 season and leaving that January.
It would remain vacant for the rest of that campaign before Emile Smith Rowe succeeded him during the summer. His departure to Fulham now means that the number is available again for the first time in three years.
Martinelli also changed from No. 25 to 11 around the same time as Smith Rowe did, and according to UEFA’s website as per the Arsenal squad list, has now replaced him. Their website, but notably not Arsenal’s or the Premier League’s, shows the number ten next to his name in the squad.
They also show Tommy Setford is No. 35 rather than the 36 he had next to his name on the teamsheet at the weekend’s match against Brighton and Hove Albion. Martinelli, of course, previously wore 35, as did Oleksandr Zinchenko, who changed to 17 this summer.
