Gabriel Martinelli is catching the eyes of Premier League followers with his performances so far this season. The 21-year-old continued his impressive start to the campaign with a man of the match display in the 3-2 win over Liverpool.
Martinelli, who gave Arsenal the lead after just 60 seconds, was too hot to handle for both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez down the left side. It's easy to see why Jurgen Klopp is such a huge admirer of the Brazilian. "Martinelli is such a talented boy, really tricky," said Klopp in May.
The forward has directly contributed to six goals in nine league appearances - and has started every game across all competitions so far this term. He has already played more minutes than he did in both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 season.
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Somebody who has been a big fan of Martinelli, even before he was getting regular game time, is Rio Ferdinand. The former Manchester United defender has revealed that he had a conversation with Mikel Arteta about Martinelli a couple of years ago, where he compared the youngster to Luis Suarez.
"I love Martinelli, love him," Ferdinand told FIVE. "I saw Arteta a couple of years ago, at Bournemouth away, and Martinelli was just coming through.
"I said to him, 'What's he like man? He looks good to me. I like the look of this kid.' And he went, 'He's going to be special.' I asked him what type of player he is, who is he like, and he said, 'There's a bit of [Luis] Suarez in there.' And I was like 'That's enough for me, he's going to be a problem.'
"He's a bad player, he was the wrong ingredient for Trent [Alexander-Arnold] when he's searching for confidence. The wrong ingredient. He did not need that!"
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