Goonersworld

Never going to be given a proper chance by Arteta.
Has it in for him - just the latest Guendouzi and Ozil on Arteta's wrong side.

Gnabry 2.0

Hope we sell him in the summer.

dont get it, this guy saved Arteta's job and now he plays the donkey ahead of him?

themessiah wrote:Gnabry 2.0

Tragic but true.what must he think when watching Pepe Willian and Auba on the pitch wandering aimlessly around scoring nothing contributing nothing and creating nothing

Angelito wrote:Hope we sell him in the summer.

I hope he stays and Arteta goes, but realistically, selling him this summer makes sense... his value is going to decrease the longer Arteta keeps exiling him from the team.

Is Martinelli carrying some kind of knock?

I would start Martinelli all day long ahead of Pepe especially against a team like city.
What you would get is energy and a will to fight for everything, pepe loses the ball and its jog back.
And William ain't fit to lace Martinelli boots so let's never go there.
Arteta is on hallucinate if he cant see what any pecking order should be.

I'd like to see more of Martinelli as well but some of the reactions here are a bit hyperbolic. Guendouzi played under Arteta until his disciplinary issues became a problem, and the Ozil situation involved a myriad of factors. He was always on his way out.

Arteta effectively has 7 players who can fit into 4 places—Aubameyang, Lacazette, Saka, Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Pepe, and Martinelli—and given Martinelli's long term injury (and the one he had after he returned), and relative inexperience, I'm not too surprised that he's lower on the pecking order. It's a travesty that Willian gets any minutes ahead of him and I wish Arteta rotated more, but this idea that he hates him and is pushing him out of the club is overly dramatic.

Callum wrote:I'd like to see more of Martinelli as well but some of the reactions here are a bit hyperbolic. Guendouzi played under Arteta until his disciplinary issues became a problem, and the Ozil situation involved a myriad of factors. He was always on his way out.

Arteta effectively has 7 players who can fit into 4 places—Aubameyang, Lacazette, Saka, Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Pepe, and Martinelli—and given Martinelli's long term injury (and the one he had after he returned), and relative inexperience, I'm not too surprised that he's lower on the pecking order. It's a travesty that Willian gets any minutes ahead of him and I wish Arteta rotated more, but this idea that he hates him and is pushing him out of the club is overly dramatic.

He's not 'relatively' inexperienced.
After returning from injury he had as much or more experience in the league than Saka, Pepe, ESR. Even Odegaard is getting starts - no experience at all in this league and a loanee to smaller clubs for the last 4 years in easier leagues.
Martinelli already proved he is ready for first team minutes.

Arteta dropped Martinelli prior to his injury too.

The kid is not going to stick around - I can't imagine that wants to stay and not play. Clubs will be lining up for him.
Like Angelito, given he is not going to play for us, I hope he does leave so we can at least get a good transfer fee... every week he doesn't play, his transfer fee will be falling.

Seeing Willian getting on in front of you must be galling beyond belief !

In his last appearance he came on to play as striker replacing Aubameyang. Anyone think Arteta may shift him to a central striker role?

Power n Glory wrote:In his last appearance he came on to play as striker replacing Aubameyang. Anyone think Arteta may shift him to a central striker role?

I think that's where his long-term future lies and with Balogun and Nketiah's contract situations, I'd look to start using him there more often.

Power n Glory wrote:In his last appearance he came on to play as striker replacing Aubameyang. Anyone think Arteta may shift him to a central striker role?

I think he can do what Wenger did with Alexis. Deploy him as a left forward or a CF as in Alexis' final full season here—depending on the opposition. He's versatile enough.

Lacazette will most likely be sold in the summer. Nketiah might be loaned out/sold too.

That will leave us with Auba as our only CF, so it makes sense to utilize Martinelli up top. His best games for us have come as a winger, so we don't really know what to expect from him as a striker. He looks like a 9.5 to me if he plays up top.

Wouldn't really mind a front three of Auba - Martinelli - Saka.

All assumptions though. We don't know if Mikel even wants to use him.

He’s definitely good on the break. But am not sure what else he’s strong at. Haven’t seen much by way of linkup play or holding the ball up and bringing others into the game. Probably too early to play him centrally. Would like to see him lock down a wide forward berth first. Should use him like Rashford as an outlet when we break.

I wonder why Arteta has a bug up his ass about this guy?