Drop Martinelli on the bench and play this player on the left wing’: Arteta told to drop Martinelli on the bench today if only He wants to Liverpool today
Arsenal have corrected their festive period slump in recent weeks with back-to-back Premier League wins over Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, although the latter was probably more complicated than it should have been.
Mikel Arteta has guided his talented squad back into contention for the title this season, but this afternoon brings one of the toughest challenges they’ll face all year as Liverpool travel to the Emirates in what promises to be a thrilling encounter.
The Reds left N5 as victors just last month when they beat their hosts 2-0 in an FA Cup game defined by wasted chances for the Gunners.
To stop the same happening this weekend, Arteta should look to take Gabriel Martinelli back out of the starting XI as he had minimal impact against Forest, and in his place, start a man who’s bagged a hat-trick against the Reds before, Leandro Trossard.
Martinelli’s season in numbers
Now, had this game and the Forest encounter earlier in the week been swapped in the schedule, there would be a strong argument that the talented Brazilian should be starting, as in his short cameo against Crystal Palace earlier this month, he bagged himself an impressive brace.
However, while there was some hope that he could use that performance to spur on a midseason reclamation of the form he showed last year, the uninspiring showing at the City Ground snuffed it out.
GOAL’s Charlie Watts gave the former Ituano ace a 6/10 for his display, which isn’t the kind of momentum you’d want a key attacker to take into a potentially title-defining battle against Jürgen Klopp’s mighty side – especially as he gave Trossard a 7/10 for his cameo, noting how close he was to scoring a ‘stunner’ and his ‘smart play’ in the dying embers of the game.
However, aside from the game on Tuesday evening, Martinelli simply hasn’t shown enough this season to justify him starting in such an important game, as in his 1399 minutes of league football he has scored four goals and provided two assists, giving him a goal involvement, on average, every 233 minutes.
A return such as that is not what you would expect from a potential title-winning winger, so it seems only fitting that he once again sits on the bench for this one, especially as he tends to be a fantastic impact player – as he showed against the Eagles.
Trossard’s season in numbers
Trossard was a revelation last season, as following his arrival from Brighton & Hove Albion towards the end of January, he provided ten assists and scored one goal in ten league starts.
While the Belgian “wizard”, as journalist Charlie Haffenden dubbed him, hasn’t been quite as prolific this season – it would have been unreasonable to expect otherwise – he has still been an effective player when called upon by Arteta.
