I think one of the things I’ve learned from watching football over the years is that player productivity never drops for no reason. There is always a reason and it is almost always tactical or has to do with connections with teammates, maybe a tactical change or the absence of a key player for example.
There are occasional exceptions, fatigue can cause a drop in form, as can something that happens in a player’s private life that can affect performance. Most of the time, there is a tactical explanation. Which brings me to Gabriel Martinelli. Many Arsenal fans have weighed in on his recent downfall.
Many have attributed this to the slowdown in the World Cup season and there may be some truth to that, but to me the absolutely obvious explanation is the absence of Gabriel Jesus through injury. During preseason, I wrote an article forecasting (so to speak) how I thought the relationship between these two players would play out.
Martinelli scored in the first two games after the post-World Cup restart. Since he scored against Brighton on New Year’s Eve, he has had one assist, which was against Oxford United. The Brazilian was rested for the FA Cup match at Manchester City but put in a live performance from the bench as Arsenal chased play.
At Everton, he was replaced before the hour of signing January Leandro Trossard. In isolation, that’s not a big deal, this is exactly the situation why Arsenal bought Trossard. Generally speaking, though, if you’re hooked before game time and you’re not injured, it’s not because you’re playing particularly well.
First of all, I think part of the frustration and criticism towards Martinelli fails to appreciate his role in the team. Oleksandr Zinchenko doesn’t overtake him from left-back as he moves into midfield. The system intentionally isolates Martinelli from the opposing right-back in one-on-one situations.
And the thing about one-on-one situations with full-backs is that you won’t beat them and produce a perfect cross, cut or shot every time. It’s really tough work that demands repeatability over efficiency. Martinelli’s role is not to paint pretty pictures, it’s to chip away at the surface of the charcoal over and over and over and over again.
His indefatigability makes him well suited for this role. Like some of his South American counterparts, Alexis Sánchez and Luis Suárez, it’s not just the fact that he’ll try to hit you, it’s that if you hit him, he’ll just get up and try again until he lands a direct hit.
Of course, while Martinelli doesn’t have an overlay to help him fill a full-back, he does have an overlay in Granit Xhaka. Earlier in the season, Granit Xhaka was enjoying an incredibly productive season in the final third, freed up to attack the left channel while the opposition defenses were busy dealing with the fast-paced duo of Jesus and Martinelli.
Just look at the goal in August against Leicester City, Gabriel Jesus is on the far left of the field and Martinelli moves inside. The move creates a chill in the Leicester defense and the two combine for Jesus to score from inside the left channel.
HIGHLIGHTS | Bournemouth-Arsenal (0-3) | Odegaard (2), Saliba – YouTube
In this example, Jesus dribbles back into the left channel and combines with Martinelli, who is then able to hit Odegaard from a prime position on the baseline. Or the example below from the opening minutes of the season, where Jesus dribbles from the right this time, occupying a large number of Palacio defenders in the process, freeing up Martinelli for a great chance that he should really score.
In short, Martinelli misses the movement and the exchange with his compatriot. Nketiah is a different type of player, which isn’t a criticism, but the focus of the attack has had to shift to serving him. That has some give and take. Nketiah has a much better goal scoring rate than Gabriel Jesus.
However, he probably has a tax on goals from other areas of the team at times and he does so on Martinelli. Now, Arsenal’s preparation is a bit more laborious and when Martinelli receives the ball, he is closer to the touchline and usually faces two opponents.
You have more things to do and a longer distance to travel. Against Everton, Martinelli passed the ball to Nketiah once and Nketiah failed to connect a single pass to Martinelli. In the Manchester United game where the Gunners dominated and Nketiah scored twice, the two players did not exchange a single pass in either direction.
Against Spurs, the picture was much better, with Martinelli finding Nketiah five times and Nketiah returning the favor twice as Tottenham sat out the first half. But in the 0-0 draw against Newcastle, they exchanged a pass each. So in the last four Premier League games, Nketiah has passed the ball to Martinelli twice.
Again, that’s not a criticism of Nketiah per se, he’s a different type of player and has provided plenty of threat in the penalty area. However, you can see why Martinelli’s performances and production might have dropped recently. When Arsenal brought in Leandro Trossard at Goodison Park, it did little to change the pattern of play (Trossard found Nketiah twice in his 32 minutes on the pitch, but Nketiah couldn’t find him).
The impact of the loss of Jesus has not been as profound with Bukayo Saka, for example, because his main team partners Martin Odegaard, Ben White and Thomas Partey are intact. Martinelli’s role in the team has always called for being on an island of sorts, isolating full-backs in one-on-one scenarios.
At Gabriel Jesus, he occasionally had a lifeboat drifting towards him on a rope and a cup of hot chocolate. It’s not that Martinelli is doing anything particularly different, or that any sort of brain drain has occurred in recent weeks. The image of him in his immediate area of ​​the field has changed, so of course his performance will be affected.
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