Arsenal star Declan Rice was seriously impressed with teammate Gabriel Martinelli after their dramatic victory over Luton Town last night.
The young Brazilian took to social media to share in the celebrations as Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal are starting to show the traits that are associated with champions.
They once again secured all three points with an incredibly late goal courtesy of Declan Rice.
Luton proved to be a very difficult team for Mikel Arteta’s side to break down due to their physicality and organisation.
Rob Edwards has set them up very well despite having one of the weakest squads in the league and they look like the most likely newly-promoted team to potentially survive the drop.
Although they made life difficult for the Gunners, arguably the scoreline shouldn’t have been as close as it was, but two errors from David Raya put his side under pressure.
Declan Rice might have completed the scoring for Arsenal, but it was Gabriel Martinelli who initially put Luton Town behind.
He latched onto a Bukayo Saka cutback who marked his 200th appearance for the club with another assist.
Arteta withdrew the 22-year-old just after the hour mark as he looked to change the game with the game on a knife edge at 3-3.
The visitors dominated proceedings after that point and ended up going home with a huge three points.
Rice praises Martinelli after Arsenal’s victory over Luton
Posting on Instagram after the match, Martinelli said: “A goal and a last minute winner with your Dad in the away end? Perfect.”
Rice simply replied to his Brazil teammate with the comment: “Toppppp,” and obviously appreciated his performance yesterday.
When Arsenal spent more than £100m on Declan Rice in the summer, there was a feeling that they may have been forced to overspend given the interest shown by the likes of Manchester City.
However, he’s immediately transformed Mikel Arteta’s team, providing a level of security in midfield that allows the likes of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz to concentrate on aiding Arsenal’s attacking trio.
Rice’s positioning helped force Arsenal’s first goal and while Martinelli didn’t have his greatest game against Luton, his contribution in the first hour can’t be ignored.
Arteta has big plans for Martinelli, but managing his minutes is key
In terms of goals and assists, Martinelli has been overshadowed by his fellow winger Bukayo Saka this season.
The Brazilian has four goal contributions in the Premier League compared to Saka’s tally of 11, but the pair appear to be two of the players Arteta is building his side around.
While Saka concentrates on cutting inside or getting to the byline to deliver crosses, Martinelli is tasked with sticking much closer to the touchline before arriving late in the box.
Unfortunately, Martinelli didn’t complete a single dribble against Luton while only completing 12 passes which is a pretty low tally compared to Arsenal teammate Rice who found his teammates on 72 occasions.
While they obviously play completely different roles in the team, it shows that Martinelli can still become isolated at times.
When he and Jakub Kiwior were replaced, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard had a much bigger impact.
It will be interesting to see who Arteta goes for when Aston Villa visit the Emirates on Saturday.
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