Arteta sees Martinelli as a striker.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said he sees Gabriel Martinelli as a centre-forward despite playing both him and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in wide-left roles at points this season.
Martinelli has had a hugely impressive debut campaign with the Gunners, looking one of the most exciting young talents in the game at the moment with ten goals in all competitions at the age of just 18.
Some of those goals have come from a wide-forward role, but it seems in the long run Martinelli will play more centrally, with Arteta suggesting the reason he’s had to tweak his system this season is due to injuries, which has also involved winger Bukayo Saka moving into a new position at left-back, creating a vacancy further forward.
“[Aubameyang and Martinelli] are centre forwards but with the squad balance that we have at the moment, to play on those positions on the left we don’t have five players,” Arteta said, as quoted by the Metro.
“We are using one left-winger to play as a left-back [Saka] and he is not a left-back so we’re just trying to adapt to the situation that we have today, trying to create an amount of goal threat that can be successful for the team. that’s part of managing the players that we have.”
Wherever Martinelli’s best position is, Arsenal look to have a real talent on their hands and it will be exciting to see how he develops in the next few years.