After Arsenal’s draw against Bayer Leverkusen, Mikel Arteta singled out Gabriel Martinelli’s miss, something that fans have recognised as a regular occurrence.
Martinelli’s Arsenal future is uncertain, and for good reason, as the Brazilian has been a passenger in the Premier League this season.
That being said, Martinelli is a different beast in cup competitions, which is why it was unsurprising to see him start against Bayer Leverkusen.
Unfortunately, the winger was unable to add to his Champions League goal tally of six, but he came very close, rattling the crossbar in the first half.
Martinelli missed the chance, and after the game, Arteta singled out his miss as a decisive moment, which fans realised the Arsenal manager had done multiple times before.
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Arsenal fans notice Mikel Arteta’s habit of calling out Gabriel Martinelli’s misses
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Arteta stressed the importance of Martinelli taking his chance.
“We started the game quite well, had a massive chance with Gabriel Martinelli hitting the crossbar. You score, the game changes completely.”
After the comment, one fan on social media noticed that this is something that the boss has done before, so compiled a list of examples when Arteta has singled out missed chances by Martinelli.
The fan found seven examples of Arteta publicly questioning Martinelli’s missed opportunities to score, which roused Gooners on X.
One unsympathetic fan said, “yeah maybe if he took his chances he wouldn’t have to mention him mate.”
That was the consensus from fans on X: “Maybe Martinelli needs to stop wasting chances too.”
Ultimately, the concern should be how frequently the winger misses chances to score, which is a lot more than Arteta calls him out for.
Arsenal have got to sell Gabriel Martinelli
The bottom line is that Martinelli is unreliable in front of goal and reinforces exactly what this Arsenal squad is missing.
It’s difficult to single out who Arsenal’s most reliable attacker is, as every member of the Gunners’ front line has massively underperformed this season.
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Focusing on Martinelli, though, it’s clearer than ever that Arsenal need to move on beyond the Brazilian, who has shown no sign of improvement after his dazzling 2022/23 campaign.
That season was a high for Martinelli, a show of what he’s capable of, scoring 15 Premier League goals, but since then, he’s regressed quite spectacularly.
The 24-year-old’s underperformance is highlighted by him missing more big chances to score (2) than he has actually scored in the Premier League (1) this season.
If Arsenal want to be the best of the best, they need to attack to match, signalling that mass change is needed, including Martinelli.
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