Even Liverpool supporters are giving Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal his flowers following a brilliant display against Leeds United at Elland Road tonight.
Although Leeds came into the contest on the back of a severe injury crisis, culiminating in the inclusion of a 15-year-old on their bench, Arsenal were still ruthless in West Yorkshire when they needed to be.
Martinelli, labelled a ‘talent of the century’ by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in 2019, scored a first-half brace in what ultimately proved a 4-1 victory for the North London outfit.
Everybody talks about Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe as being the Gunners’ most exciting young players.
But Martinelli has stepped his game up massively in recent weeks and his double tonight was just reward for his improvement.
Here’s how Liverpool supporters reacted to his performance on Twitter:
Inconsistency
Of course, a lot of Liverpool fans were also tweeting about how much they would love to see him at Anfield – on a permanent basis.
But Arsenal won’t be thinking about losing the South American sensation anytime soon and besides, he has proven nothing yet.
Martinelli, a £6 million signing, is playing out of his skin at the moment and there’s no doubt about that, but since Klopp praised him in November of two years ago, he has been blowing hot and cold in a massive way.
Consistency issues has plagued a lot of these Arsenal players – like Nicolas Pepe for instance – and Martinelli is only one poor outing away from morphing back into the ineffective prospect he has been for two years.
His ability and talent is undeniable, but so is his inconsistency and until he improves on the latter, there’ll be no serious speculation or chatter about a transfer away from the Emirates Stadium.
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