'I feel sorry for Arsenal star – I know exactly what he's going through'

Today at 07:24 AM

Former Arsenal winger Anders Limpar admits he feels sorry for Gabriel Martinelli amid his current struggles.

The Brazil international has appeared to be short on confidence this season and has scored just three goals in 17 appearances for club and country.

Martinelli did get back on the scoresheet in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge prior to the international break and Limpar hopes he can kick on from there.

‘I feel a little bit sorry for Gabriel Martinelli because I know exactly what he’s going through. He hasn’t scored that many goals,’ Limpar told mybettingsites.co.uk.

‘But if you look at the whole picture. If you look at Martinelli and Saka for example. Saka, he’s a point player – he scores and provides assists.

‘Martinelli, he’s the same but not in the same range. If you look at them, who’s taking responsibility in defence? It’s Gabriel Martinelli.” 

‘And when you look at a winger, you always look at if he scores or not. You have to look at Martinelli’s work rate for the team and it’s a hundred percent better than Saka’s. Saka is a world class player who needs to go forward.’

Limpar joined Arsenal following the 1990 World Cup and his creativity and skill decorated the Gunners’ title-winning campaign.

The Sweden international eventually fell out of favour under George Graham, in part, due to his lack of defensive aptitude.

Limpar, however, believes Martinelli is cut from a different cloth and has noted his outstanding workrate off the ball.

He added: ‘I feel a little bit sorry for Martinelli because he’s tremendous for the team. So you shouldn’t just look at his goal contributions. You should look at the whole picture. His work-rate in the defence, setting up the ball for others and scoring occasionally.

‘It is like this when you’re an attacking player for a top team like Arsenal, Man City or Liverpool. You always look at the points. You need to be end product players. Martinelli is an end product player but he is taking so much defensive responsibility, that he’s lacking the end product.

‘I like him as a player and we shouldn’t criticise him as much as we do. Martinelli’s underappreciated for sure. He’s not the best defender. Saka is not the best defender. But they are unbelievable going forward.

‘Out of the two, Martinelli has the bigger heart for the team. And again it’s a bit harsh of me to say that because I love Saka, he’s one of the top players in the Premier League. He should just go forward.

‘But Martinelli has so much heart, he’s working his balls off for the team. You shouldn’t forget that.’