Daily Cannon
·10 December 2019
Daily Cannon
·10 December 2019
Sitting one-nil down, Arsenal fans can be forgiven for thinking their club were about to hit double figures without a win until Gabriel Martinelli stepped up and changed all that.
It’s what he does. He starts, he scores.
Despite only being 18, the forward has eight goals and two assists from 14 games. But that only tells part of the story. While he might have played the full 90 in all Europa League and EFL cup games, this was his first start in the Premier League and his first full 90 there.
Looking at just his minutes, Martinelli is averaging a goal or assist every 69.6 minutes in his first season in England.
To compare, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the only player at the club to score more than that Brazilian this season, has 13 goals and one assist from 19 games, but he’s played almost 1,000 minutes more (1,631 v 696) and averages a goal or assist every 116.5 minutes.
But none of that is record breaking, impressive as it is.
What is impressive is that the teenager, at 18 years and 174 days, is the youngest player ever to score on his debut for Arsenal.
Plus that makes it eight goals from just seven starts.
Every time I see him play I can’t help but think what an absolute bargain he was.