According to DailyMail, Chelsea are keeping tabs on Arsenal’s 21-year-old winger Gabriel Martinelli.
The winger was signed from Brazil third division side Ituano in the summer of 2019 for a fee of £6 million. Since then, he has played 93 times for the Gunners scoring 21 goals and assisting 14.
That’s one goal contribution in every 2.6 games, which is an impressive number for a player who was a teenager not long ago. He has also played three times for Brazil, and it’s highly likely that there will be many more in the future.
After former club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was omitted from the first-team picture by Mikel Arteta, midway through last season, Martinelli has made the left wing position his own.
His impressive displays since then haven’t gone under the radar, with London rivals Chelsea thought to be keen on signing the Brazilian.
Chelsea have been going through a rebuilding process under new owner Todd Boehly and new manager Graham Potter and have already shown signs of splashing stupendous amounts of cash.
Martinelli will only have one year left on his current Arsenal deal in the summer and the club would definitely be looking at tying one of their better players.
But failure to qualify for Champions League – even though it feels highly unlikely at present – might tempt some of the Gunners’ most prized assets to look for a different adventure.
Martinelli is not the only young player who the club’s faithful would want to see at the Emirates Stadium for years to come. It is William Saliba and even Bukayo Saka, whose contracts run until the summer of 2024.
If manager Mikel Arteta wants to keep one of his most trusted players at home base, he would have to guide the team to Champions League qualification, come May.
There are no two ways about it.
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