Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been discussing the latest injury picked up by Gunners winger Gabriel Martinelli during the north London club’s recent 4-1 defeat against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
This comes after Watts released a video onto his YouTube channel where he reflected on the defeat against Pep Guardiola’s side.
On the topic of Martinelli’s injury that he picked up in the first half of the match after a clash with City goalkeeper Zack Steffen that forced him to go off in the second half, Watts had this to say on the situation. (11.02)
He said: “As I said [Martinelli] was a massive positive [against City that] turned into a huge negative when he got his injury.
“I think that moment when he went down, he was lying on the ground, he had his head over his shirt. It was really worrying. It was good to see him get up and sort of walk it off and get to halftime. Why he came on again at halftime for the second half I have no idea.
“I know the type of guy that Martinelli is, I know he would have been in that changing room saying ‘I want to play I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine,’ but you take the decision out of his own hand, that was a nasty clash, you saw how much pain he was in.
“It just felt like a really odd decision, given what happened with Thomas Partey recently, even with David Luiz when he sent him back on again, it was just an odd decision for me to see him go down again, like two minutes into the second half was worrying.”
Arsenal signed the 19-year-old back in the 2019 summer transfer window from Brazilian club Ituano for a fee of £6.03 million.
Since then, the winger has gone on to make 28 appearances for the north London club in which he has managed to score 10 goals and provide five assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
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TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments on Martinelli…
It does seem strange that Mikel Arteta did not substitute Martinelli at half time and allowed him to play on in the second half. However, with the Brazilian sharing a post on his official Instagram page after the match saying that he is “feeling fine and ready to go again,” this thankfully puts to bed any concerns over this injury.
In our view, with Martinelli earning himself a respectable match rating of 6.81/10 for his performance against City, this shows that he should be a regular starter for the club, assuming he doesn’t pick up any more injuries along the way.