One Arsenal player had fans beside themselves in one moment early into the clash at Anfield.
The Gunners’ wait for a Premier League win at Anfield goes on, with matchday three seeing Arsenal’s undefeated streak against the big six come to an end.
Arne Slot’s champions took three points from Mikel Arteta’s side thanks to what can only be described as a moment of magic from Dominik Szoboszlai.
It was a dignified performance from Arsenal that merely lacked some creativity, which can’t only be blamed on tactics, but personnel, too.
Arsenal fans were furious with Gabriel Martinelli
There was a reason why Gabriel Martinelli was an unused substitute against Leeds United, as the Brazilian has dipped quite significantly.
Given the winger’s impressive record against Liverpool, Arteta restored him to the starting XI, but the switch did not pay off.
Despite having competition building around him and pressure there to turn his form around, Martinelli doesn’t seem to be learning his lesson, as we saw in the ninth minute at Anfield.
Just before the tenth-minute mark, the 24-year-old was dribbling at pace with Viktor Gyokeres waiting ahead of him.
Gyokeres was visibly holding his run, waiting to be slipped through, but instead, Martinelli ran centrally into the wall that was Liverpool’s defence.
What could’ve been a chance for the Swede to test Alisson became another instance of Martinelli running aimlessly with his head down, and it’s fair to say fans have had enough.
“Martinelli, maybe you should raise your head,” a fan said at the time of the missed chance.
Other supporters then flooded to X to share their immediate reactions to the passage of play.
“Omg I’m better than Martinelli as a LW.”
“Martinelli make one good decision por favor.”
“Martinelli bruddah lift your head up!”
Fans completely lost their patience with the Brazil international in that moment, with the forward’s decision-making described as ‘horrible’ and ‘shocking’.
Another supporter branded Martinelli as ‘so unintelligent’, while others turned their attention to how Gyokeres would’ve felt at the time.
“Martinelli aint Arsenal Standard tbh. Gyokeres was so furious there,” a supporter said.
Another echoed, “Stuff like that is why I can’t defend Nelli anymore, man. Gyokeres was literally right there.”
Martinelli did not trouble Dominik Szoboszlai
That moment was one of several instances where Martinelli was completely ineffective during the game.
What was perhaps most concerning was that it was a real chance for the Brazilian to impress, as Liverpool had Szoboszlai, a midfielder, playing at right-back.
The reality was that Martinelli didn’t even remotely test the Hungarian, signalling a really worrying outlook for the future of Arsenal’s left side.
There is so much hope that the 24-year-old can turn things around, but right now, games just seem to be passing the winger by.
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