Arsenal’s Premier League campaign has gotten off to a rocky start this year.

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After winning their opening two games, Declan Rice’s dismissal in the third caused Mikel Arteta’s team to lose points for the first time this season. Then, while playing for his country, club captain Martin Odegaard hurt his ankle; he will miss at least three weeks of play.

In the North London Derby, the Gunners traveled up Seven Sister Road to play Tottenham Hotspur, and despite the odds, they won all three points thanks to their backup midfield.

Arsenal – Gabriel – Romero – Spurs – Tottenham
Although the effort was unquestionable, Gabriel Martinelli’s performance in front of goal continued to be lacking. This is an area of his game that needs improvement, particularly because Hale End has a promising young player who may challenge him in the upcoming seasons. Despite this, the game was nonetheless important and won.

The shape of Gabriel Martinelli lately

First things first: as seen by his 15 goals and 6 assists in 46 appearances during the 22–23 season, Martinelli is one of the Premier League’s most dynamic and thrilling wingers when he’s at his best.

Arsenal—Gabriel Martinelli—Stats
But there’s the rub: he hasn’t been performing at his peak level lately.

For instance, the Brazilian saw a marked decline in performance last season, finishing with an unimpressive total of eight goals and five assists in 44 games—going from an average of 2.19 goals per game to 3.38 goals per game—while the rest of the team maintained and even improved on their form.

The most recent seasons of Martinelli

Time of year

22–23

23/24

25/24

Looks

46

44

4

Objectives

15

8

0

Helps

Six

5.

0

Goal Contributions Each Game

0.45

0.29

0.00

Every stat through Transfermarkt

Regretfully, this season has seen the Guarulhos-born powerhouse maintain his dismal goal-scoring performance. Despite having numerous excellent opportunities to score or assist in a goal, he has not been able to do so after four league games, totaling 251 minutes.

Fans are even more frustrated because he has had opportunities. He still has the ability to outmuscle opponents and looked dangerous at times against Spurs, but, just like the previous season, he was let down by a final ball, shot, or decision.

Arsenal Martinelli
The former Ituano diamond still has a chance to find the form that made him so famous a few years ago, but if he doesn’t, he risked losing his spot in the starting lineup and, in a few years, his spot in the team to a young, talented academy player.

Reasons to be happy about Ismeal Kabia for fans

The intriguing young player in question is 18-year-old winger Ismeal Kabia. He and Ethan Nwaneri, Ayden Heaven, Myles Lewis Skelly, and Maldini Kacurri are the five Hale End graduates who were selected on the bench for Sunday’s match against Tottenham Hotspur.

The fact that the young Dutchman was even chosen for the bench, despite not playing, indicates that Arteta and the team have high hopes for what the player might develop into and who he can challenge in the future.

Although the gifted young player is primarily a right-winger, he has made eight of his 22 starts and 33 appearances off the left. There is no reason the young player couldn’t be used more on the left in the future, which would also allow him to cut inside and use his right foot, much like Martinelli was on the right in the season’s final game.

As podcaster Will Balsam put it, the “excellent finisher” has made 33 appearances for the various young teams over the past couple of years, contributing four assists and four goals. Even while those aren’t very high statistics, they are nonetheless positive.

Balsam called the 18-year-old a “spark plug” and the “fastest player we’ve seen at Hale End in the last 10 years,” which is saying something and might lead to him being given the opportunity to play in cup games in the future. His lightning-fast pace is undoubtedly his most important selling factor.

Overall, Kabia is still a young, mostly right-sided player, but he’s shown promise off the left and could well become a more regular fixture in squads going forward with the ultimate goal of challenging the Brazilian for his starting spot down the line. Martinelli, on the other hand, needs to rediscover his goalscoring form.