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‘Those two were surreal’… Gabriel Martinelli suggests he misses Arsenal duo who Mikel Arteta offloaded
Gabriel Martinelli has been speaking about how David Luiz and Emiliano Martinez helped him at Arsenal.
The 22-year-old made the comments during an interview with TNT Sports.
So, what did Arsenal No.11 Gabriel Martinelli say about David Luiz and Emiliano Martinez? Let’s take a look…
Gabriel Martinelli praises Emiliano Martinez and David Luiz
Well, the Brazil international could not speak highly enough of his fellow South Americans.
Martinelli : “There were several players who helped me a lot, but David Luiz and Emi Martinez… Emi would pick me up from home to take me to the stadium on match day, take me to the group. I was always with him and so was David. So, well, those two were surreal for me and I’m eternally grateful to them.”
The Brazilian made an immediate impact at Arsenal following a move from Ituano in July 2019.
Martinelli impressively scored goals and provided four assists in 26 appearances throughout his debut campaign at Arsenal, which stood out given the fact he was just 18 years of age.
Surely – despite his incredible talent – that would not have been possible without the help of Luiz and Martinez, who seemingly gave the boy from Guarulhos a platform to become a success at Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta eventually offloaded the latter to Aston Villa in a move back in September 2020.
Luiz then departed the Emirates Stadium in July 2021 when his contract expired.
Arsenal signing Gabriel Martinelli goes under the radar
In our view, Arsenal’s capture of Martinelli for just £6m in July 2019 goes under the radar – it is arguably one of the best signings in modern football history.
He is now worth £126.7m – according to the CIES Football Observatory.
Ituano were not even playing in the Brasileiro Série A at the time of this deal – in fact, the Brazilian outfit were competing in Brazil’s third division.
It is quite remarkable that Edu even managed to find Martinelli playing at such a level, and it is even more remarkable that the forward ended up adapting to English football so quickly.