A lot of the focus from Arsenal’s defeat to Man City is on the decision to play Kepa over David Raya but Ian Wright actually got it right about another selection call from Mikel Arteta.
Arteta went with Kepa and it backfired in the end. He has since come under fire, with Jamie Redknapp among those to question him.
However, while the Kepa debate will rumble on, Ian Wright made a comment at half-time about Gabriel Martinelli that was also bang on the money.
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Gabriel Martinelli should have played for Arsenal at Wembley
As we know, Arsenal have a big squad and a lot of top players so it was always going to be hard for Mikel Arteta to keep everyone happy.
However, with the game going as it did, former striker Wright pointed out why Martinelli should play.
“For me, from Arsenal’s point of view, I’d have Martinelli. Martinelli would always make my team,” Wright said on Sky Sports.
“Especially on a Wembley pitch like this today. I don’t think Gyokeres or Kai are holding the ball up long enough to get with them. We need someone to run us out and cause some problems.”
In the end, Martinelli was introduced with just 10 minutes to go and had little time to make any sort of impact on the game.
Leandro Trossard was largely ineffective, only adding to the question marks on Martinelli.
However, Wright’s comments do point out a concern in that both of Arsenal’s central forwards were unable to hold the ball or do anything of note with it.
Havertz and Gyokeres were poor and that then impacted the likes of Saka and Trossard.
Nevertheless, Martinelli will be disappointed and him coming on so late only begs further questions of the Gunners boss.
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