Gabriel Martinelli may have scored a beautiful goal for Arsenal on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean Mikel Arteta was totally happy with the Gunners star.
Arsenal beat Watford 3-2 on Sunday afternoon, constructing some fine goals on their way to victory.
Martin Odegaard’s opener was a brilliantly-crafted strike and Bukayo Saka’s first-time finish from Alexandre Lacazette’s back heel was a corker.
Arsenal’s third was even better. Arteta set Arsenal going by initiating a quick throw-in and it was one-touch excellence from there.
Saka’s throw to Cedric, into Odegaard, flicked on to Lacazette, set back to Martinelli and fired into the top corner.
That’s the kind of football Arsene Wenger would have been proud of and Martinelli’s finish was a thing of beauty in itself.
Martinelli has now hit five goals this season and Sunday’s strike ended a nine-game goal drought for the Brazilian attacker.
Yet it wasn’t all good for Martinelli as boss Arteta was left fuming with him during the first half.
Football London claim that that Arteta showed ‘anger and disgust’ when Martinelli left his defensive role to try and go forward.
Arteta was fuming, complaining to coach Albert Stuivenberg that Martinelli should have focused on his defensive duties to help Kieran Tierney.
Bukayo Saka tends to be very good at this on the right side but Arteta seemingly isn’t totally happy with Martinelli’s defensive awareness.
That’s just something Martinelli will have to develop into his game if he is to nail down the spot as Arsenal’s left-sided winger under Arteta.
The Spaniard won’t settle for passengers off the ball, and Martinelli has plenty of time to fix that side of his game at the age of just 20.
Sunday’s anger will hopefully show Martinelli that he needs to support his full backs as well as score beautiful goals in order to become an Arsenal hero; we all know he can do it.
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