Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal fans to not get carried away by Gabriel Martinelli’s emergence.
Arsenal has a real gem of a player on their hands in Gabriel Martinelli. The young Brazilian has been in fine form for the Gunners having scored 10 goals in all competitions including two in his last two starts.
He has earned the admiration of several managers and pundits with Jurgen Klopp claiming that he is the “talent of the century”.
His breakaway goal against Chelsea in his last game has been the highlight of his career so far and that goal made him the youngest player to score up to 10 goals for Arsenal since Nicholas Anelka.
Mikel Arteta is, however, not getting carried away by the Brazilian’s performance and has urged fans not to burden him with too many expectations.
He also asked the youngster to keep his head down and enjoy the natural progression of his career.
“I would like to talk about potential, more than what it is at the moment because for him there is still a long way,” Arteta said per the Mirror.
“The stature of this club, to give him the key to do that straight away is not fair on him. We have to bring him down.
“I want him to train with his head down every day hard and slowly he will start to earn the praise if he does what he needs to do every day, but it is not about one or two days.”
Of course, what Arteta is saying is sensible but it is hard not to get carried away to be honest.
Additionally, other clubs across Europe have no fear of playing their talented youngsters on a regular basis, it does seem to be a very Premier League thing to cover up hot prospects in cotton wool and “protect” them.
No wonder so many become disgruntled and want to move away.