Should Arteta play Gabriel Martinelli up front for the remainder of the season? | OneFootball

It is time to make a change as two crunch matches with Real Madrid in the Champions League are coming up.

Not to discredit Mikel Merino, I think he has done an okay job as our striker considering it is not his natural positon. But this will not work against Real Madrid over two legs. Instead, Merino should be used as a super-sub if we need a goal late on.

Gabriel Martinelli is in need of a positional change because, as a winger, he has not produced anything for the past two seasons. He has regressed as a player, especially from the levels we saw from him in the 22/23 season.

That may be down to teams playing a low block against us now, this makes him quite limited as his main attribute is pace. All he does now is put a few aimless crosses into the box, or hits it off a defender in the hope of winning a corner.

Up front, Martinelli may thrive as he is more dangerous in central areas. However, his finishing needs to improve as we have seen him miss clear-cut chances. When he first signed for us, Unai Emery used the Brazilian as a striker and he was scoring all types of goals.

Arsenal’s Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Martinello. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)

That was almost 6 years ago but I believe Arteta should try him up front now, due to our lack of options in that position. A front three of Gabriel Martinelli, Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka (hopefully, if 100% fit) will give us a better chance of overturning Real Madrid in the Champions League, in my opinion.

Arteta needs to make this change because if he doesn’t and continues with this rigid structure, we will not progress to the Champions League Semi-Final.

What are you thoughts Gooners?

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