Gabriel Martinelli has hit back at his detractors and insisted "I know what I can do" after his place in Brazil's World Cup squad was labelled a "joke" by former Selecao star Neto.
The Arsenal forward has enjoyed a positive season with the Gunners and is just one goal shy of equalling his best-ever league return, with five to his name already. Despite this, his place in the Brazil side for the upcoming tournament in Qatar has been called into question by an ex-international.
Martinelli has featured just three times for his country so far, without a goal in any of his appearances. However, he did play a vital role in the Brazil Under-23 side which secured a gold medal at the Olympic Games held in Tokyo last year.
Neto's assessment of the situation saw him take aim at the Arsenal fan-favourite in brutal fashion. Speaking on Os Donos da Bola, he claimed: "This is a shame, a joke! I feel ashamed! Not because of Dani Alves' story. What is Martinelli's story? 33 career goals. This is a shame, a lack of respect for football.
"Doing this with football shows that you don't deserve the position you are in. Calling up Martinelli and not calling up Gabigol [Gabriel Barbosa] is a lack of respect. The biggest shame of all the call-ups."
Neto went even further and explained how no one in his home country even knows who Martinelli is, adding: "Nobody knows who he is. Calling up Martinelli shows that you, Tite, shouldn't hold the position you do, because you're not fair to Gabigol.
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"The guy [Martinelli] who scores five goals in the season, who walks around the mall here, nobody knows who he is. And not taking Gabigol, the guy who scored the goal of the [Copa] Libertadores title, who scored 29 goals in the season."
However, the comments don't seem to have stung the young Brazilian too much, as he remains as confident as ever in his abilities.
Responding to the hurtful comments via ESPN Brasil, the Arsenal wide-man explained: "I think this is normal. Some people in Brazil don't know me and it's also normal to say that other players deserved to be there. But I'm pretty cool about it. I think this is normal.
"I know what I'm doing at my club, I know my ability and I know what I can do. And you can be sure that I will do my best for the Brazilian team, in whatever I can help the team I will help. It will be a great experience for me."
While many younger players could have responded with a taunt or jibe of their own, Martinelli simply took the criticism in his stride and insisted he will prove the doubters wrong by doing his talking on the pitch.
After the 3-0 win away at Brentford in September, Arteta highlighted Martinelli's maturity as something that has come on leaps and bounds over the last 12 months - it was certainly on show with his reply to Neto's comments.
It is also one of the many reasons Arteta is so desperate to tie the Brazilian down with a contract extension, something Martinelli seems equally keen on given he recently joked he "just needs a pen".
With seven league goal contributions across 13 games, Martinelli's performances have gone a long way to helping Arsenal reach the top of the Premier League table.
The Gunners play their last fixture before the World Cup on Saturday away at Wolves. Martinelli will know just how important a goal could be as he aims to keep his side top over Christmas and send another message to his doubters.
