By Flava
March 3 2024

                                  When evaluating our players I’m more positive than many posters on Arsenal Times.

I think every player in our squad has been branded as not being good enough at some point this season. ‘Rice doesn’t pass the ball forward’, ‘Odegaard goes missing in big games’. ‘White can’t do what Tomiyasu does’.

One of my many foibles is that if a footballer play for Arsenal I tend to overrate them. I still love Nicolas Pepe and I will die on that hill.

About 4 years ago I said that I wasn’t overly fond of Gabriel Martinelli. He would fall down 20 times a game in agony and was up and running around at 200mph five minutes later. He also had genuine injury issues which could not be helped. The way he lost the ball with his head down frustrated me and he’d ignore, or didn’t have the vision to see players who were in better positions.

Last season he made me eat my words with a string of breath-taking performances and a fantastic haul of 15 league goals, most strikers don’t get that type of return. However, this season the goals have dried up and the things that used to annoy me are once again coming to the fore. Perhaps they’ve always been there and the goals helped cover them up. Head down and dribbling into blind alleys, the lack of a left foot, the sloppy first touch, being marooned on the touchline and his lack of football IQ I find really bothering. I haven’t heard many people criticising him for the way he gave the ball away against Porto in the last minute. It had me and my son shouting at the TV, a truly brain dead moment that was punished in the severest fashion.

He has elite super powers of course. His turn of pace is electric and he’s a great finisher. I’m cognisant that he’s still only 22 and works hard for the team. He has the ability to go supernova but I don’t think we’ll ever see it. I can’t escape the Theo Walcott vibes Martinelli gives me.

This will undoubtedly come back to bite me on the backside when he’s converted to a striker and bangs in 35 goals a season and takes us to Champions League glory.

I hope Martinelli proves me wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time.

(PS this was written before some of fantastic build up play against Newcastle. However his shooting ability is still to match last season. Editor)