Gary Lineker singles out Arsenal player who really ‘struggled’ against Liverpool

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One Arsenal player had an afternoon to forget at Anfield as the Gunners suffered their first defeat of the season.

With it only being matchday three, there won’t be an overreaction from the Arsenal squad after losing 1-0 to Liverpool. 

A freak Dominik Szoboszlai goal won the Reds three points from a contest that was destined to be a draw.

Mikel Arteta has been criticised for how he set his side up, limiting Arsenal’s attacking options from the start by opting for a defensive-minded midfield trio. 

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Gary Lineker says Gabriel Martinelli struggled against Liverpool 

A lot of the discourse from the game was Arteta’s team selection, most notably the call to start Mikel Merino over the likes of Eberechi Eze, Ethan Nwaneri and Martin Odegaard.

That wasn’t, however, the only squad change that backfired for the Arsenal manager, as restoring Gabriel Martinelli to the starting XI was catastrophic. 

Martinelli was incredibly poor against Liverpool, failing to test Szoboszlai, a midfielder who was playing right-back. 

It wasn’t only Arsenal fans who were frustrated with Martinelli, but pundits too, as Gary Lineker singled out the Brazilian’s struggles at Anfield. 

Commenting on William Saliba’s early withdrawal, Lineker said on The Rest Is Football podcast, “Hopefully, it’s not anything too serious, but he’ll be a big miss for them.

“So, that one or two kind of stumbling blocks along the way at the moment. Martinelli, I thought, struggled to get into the game.”

Lineker’s eyes did not deceive him, as Martinelli was a passenger against Liverpool, making only 15 touches in 70 minutes and failing to complete, or attempt, a single dribble to trouble Szoboszlai.

Martinelli needs some time away from the starting XI

The situation of Martinelli is a really difficult one, as there’s certainly a player there to help Arsenal, but we haven’t seen anywhere near his best for a long, long time. 

Bringing the Brazilian back into the starting XI to face Liverpool was to be expected as, not only does the winger track back, but he also has a very good career record against the Reds. 

That in itself is part of the problem with Martinelli, as there seems to be a failure to accept that the danger the forward offers to Arteta’s attack was a thing of the past.

Thus, it wasn’t overly surprising to see the 24-year-old fail to contribute at Anfield, as his record against Liverpool was something his past levels of form provided, a level Arsenal aren’t seeing often enough.