3 most improved players at Arsenal of 2021, including contender for next captain

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Heading into 2022, the football is rosy in the Arsenal garden and Mikel Arteta is starting to see signs of real progression at the club.

There could have been many occasions when Arsenal could have booted the former midfielder out of their doors.

But they remained patient in ‘the process’ and the words ’trust the process’ are now probably starting to come to fruition.

Whilst Arteta is starting to show progression, as his side sits in the Champions League places, here we take a look at three players that have improved under his stewardship in 2021:

Emile Smith Rowe – This time last season, Smith Rowe wasn’t even a regular for Arsenal, but that quickly changed when he started to get a taste of first-team football with his boyhood club.

Mesut Özil was heading for the exit door and there was a big creative void that needed filing, even though the German hadn’t played a single minute of football.

Then, Smith Rowe went from Hale-End star to England international within the space of 12 months, and he is now one of Arteta’s most important players.

In 16 Premier League games, he has already bagged seven goals and he is in with a real chance of being the Premier League’s Young Player of the Season if he continues in his current ways.

Gabriel Martinelli – Another young gun starting to fire under Arteta and proving that the work they are doing on the training ground is paying off.

The 20-year-old is the man of the moment because, from his last six league matches, he has scored or assisted on six occasions, including netting a brace at Elland Road last time out.

Martinelli’s movement off the ball, composure, decision-making and ruthless nature in front of goal is proof that he is coming a long way.

Gabriel Magalhaes – Another Gabriel on the list, but this time a hard-hitting defender.

The left-footed centre-back arrived at the club last summer for a fee of £23 million (BBC Sport) and started life in north London in a positive fashion.

The first half of the campaign went promising for Gabriel, only for the player to go backwards towards the back end of the campaign.

But this season, he has picked himself up again and taken his game to another level.

Arsenal have kept an impressive eight clean sheets from his 15 matches, that’s already better than last season when he kept six during his time on the pitch.

Not only is Gabriel doing the talking with the football, but he could also be handed the captain’s armband given that he is a possible contender to replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.