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Football London
Football London
Sport
Kieran Horn

What Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli did to Liverpool's Fabinho in Brazil World Cup training

Of the 26 players set to be competing for one of the World Cup favourites, Brazil, 12 of them play their domestic football in the Premier League. Two of those names represent Arsenal in England's top flight in the form of Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli.

Gabriel Magalhaes, who also plays for Arsenal and the Brazilian national team, did not receive a call-up from Tite to the World Cup squad, likely due to the impressive defensive depth at his disposal.

Lucas Paqueta, Richarlison and Thiago Silva all play for Arsenal's London rivals of West Ham, Spurs and Chelsea, respectively, while Ederson and Allison are the number-one goalkeepers at Manchester City and Liverpool.

READ MORE: Martin Odegaard Norway team-mates gives Edu easy option with clear message to Arsenal captain

In central midfield, Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes joins Man United duo Fred and Casemiro, along with forward Antony in heading to Qatar, and Liverpool midfielder Fabinho, who has been talking about his Brazilian team-mates and Premier League rivals, completes the 12 names.

Arsenal's Martinelli was a somewhat surprising inclusion, given he had only made his international debut in the early stages of 2022 and was left out of the squad for the September international break, but Brazil boss Tite made it very clear regarding his reasons to include Martinelli, with one of them being his 'aggressiveness'.

While Tite was confident in his decision, Martinelli faced backlash in Brazil for his inclusion and also received a shocked look from national team-mate Neymar when the PSG star heard Martinelli's name in the official squad announcement.

However, following a spoken response to those critics, Martinelli has now done more talking on the training pitch with Brazil, where a video shows him terrorising Liverpool midfielder Fabinho.

The 28-second clip shows Martinelli go on several exciting runs in a small-sided game in Brazil training, including a gorgeous flick over a sliding challenge, and he also appears to cause significant problems for Fabinho, including one moment where a perfectly-timed run leaves the Liverpool man completely exposed.

Despite Martinelli's impressive performances in training, he will likely not be in the starting Xl for Brazil's opening game against Serbia on November 24, but he can certainly be an exciting option off the bench.

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