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Gabriel Martinelli has been on fire for Arsenal so far this season, but he could have been turning out for Juventus had Mikel Arteta not held firm.
Martinelli has scored three times in five games as the Gunners have raced to the top of Premier League, with a point more than Manchester City and a game in hand over the champions ahead of the afternoon meeting with Manchester United.
The most-used outfield attacker this term, the young Brazilian was subbed on eight times and off 11 last season, and AC Milan were reportedly ready to pounce in the event that Rafael Leao left for Chelsea
In the end the Blues were priced out of a move for the former Lille man, and signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a €12 million deal from Barcelona on deadline day instead. Arteta is glad Martinelli stayed.
Banging down the manager’s door
“When he wasn’t playing he was all the time in my office, and every time showing me on the pitch how wrong I was,” the Spanish tactician told the Times of his young Brazilian.
“He was just a sad boy. He loves what he does so much, he’s so eager to do whatever it takes for him to play that he’s there all the time, pushing you and giving you the right reasons, in the right way, to give him more minutes.”
Milan could have offered Champions League football this season in a way that Arsenal couldn’t, the Gunners having slipped up at the end of last season to finish fifth.
But Martinelli is yet to play in the Champions League and, at 21, has plenty of time on his side.
If Arsenal beat United on Sunday they will open up a four-point lead at the top of the table. They might not then be favourites to win the Premier League, but they will be odds on to pull up a chair to European football’s top table next term.
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