Morning all. A quick-witted Friday blog for you.

Obviously the Gabriel in the spotlight right now is Martinelli. The young Brazilian was admirable against West Ham on Wednesday, composed a incredible aim, and- in my opinion anyway- had his best game for the guild. In fact, since he was somewhat surprisingly thrown on as a substitute against Newcastle, a game in which he tallied a destination so savory they should name a dessert after it, he’s been very good.

After some early appearings in the season when he, and the team to be fair, struggled a little, it feels like he’s taken a step forward, and it has come at only the right time sacrificed everything else that’s going on with our forwards. After the West Ham game, I concluded Mikel Arteta was quite interesting in what he said about him 😛 TAGEND

” He’s be allowed to articulated some gears into his frolic. Sometimes he’s still “re doing everything” at 100 miles per hour but the power and excellence he registers at times is top .”

It’s clear he’s someone who frolics with a natural intensity and exuberance, but knowing when to induce lopes, and understanding the practice the game is going on around you, is really important. Not everyone dallies at your pace, so you have to adjust to the timing of others. I think we’re seeing that now.

I don’t know if he’s been deliberately’ being held by’ to work on those aspects of his game, but we’re surely receiving work on the training ground, instructing etc, come to fruition. What’s particularly superb is that he can couple his attacking threat with such tireles work off the pellet. There was a great example in the first half when he lost out in an aerial conflict to Vladimir Coufal 😛 TAGEND

His reaction was brilliant. As the West Ham man drove infield, he put on the burners, sprinted after him, and inside four seconds won the ball back for us with one of the four successful tackles he made on the night.

For a team which doesn’t winning the ball high up the lurch as often as we should, this is a nice development. There was another one just before half-time too where the usually rock-solid Declan Rice got his pocket picked by Martinelli, again reacting instantly to a turnover in property. A possible West Ham counter was snuffed out immediately.

He has absolutely taken his chance in the last few plays to become a much more regular feature in this team. I don’t think he’s a 100% nailed-on starter just yet, but the goal he tallied against West Ham will certainly give the manager some pause for contemplated when he thinks about his centre-forward options in the coming weeks. The question of how we can get Martinelli, Smith Rowe, Saka and Odegaard into the team at the same time can be answered that way, whether we see that or not remains to be seen. For now though, it’s great to see him make this step forward- and for some extra reading on him, Tim’s row this week is just what you need.

However, he’s not the only Gabriel on our journals, and behind him his countrywoman, Gabriel Magalhes, has been calmly impressive since his introduction this season. I wanted to check the stats to see if he’s significantly different than he was last season, and the interesting thing is, he’s not really.

STAT2 020 -2 12021 -2 2 PASSING ACCURACY8 9.3% 91.3% DUELS5 8.5% 57.5% AERIAL DUELS5 9.4% 50% INTERCEPTIONS5. 25 per game4. 15 per competition FOULS0. 96 per game0. 8 per tournament CLEARANCES3 per game2. 96 per activity

The needle hasn’t really moved vastly in any of them, but perhaps a 10% reduced by aerial confrontation success this season is important to note. However, I think this is one of those where stats versus noses can tell you a slightly different story, because the Gabriel I see this year is more self-confident, more solid. A classic pattern of a actor who has come from abroad, done pretty well in his first season, but in his second he’s settled, cozy at his new club and animation in a brand-new country, and taking a step forward in his all-round game. “Were not receiving” stat to measure presence, but he’s got more of it now.

Without wanting to flog a dead horse or anything, I also think the fact he doesn’t have someone like David Luiz around him is a help- on the move regardles( I’m sure he was very useful to his fellow Brazilian when he met first ). There’s a scene in the movie Boogie Nights when they trip a drug dealer who is playing loud music but at regular intervals firecrackers go off all around them. It’s incredibly tense. You really never know when the next hit is coming. That was what I was almost like watching Luiz at Arsenal. You could never unwind, because you knew calamity would come calling sooner or later.

The blossoming partnership between Gabriel and Ben White is a hugely important piece of this Arsenal puzzle. The shortcoming of consistency at centre-half, and in the back four in general, has hurt us over the last few years, and with these two it looks like- fingers traversed- we’ve found something which might be in place for the medium-long term, and that can only be a good thing. They are both young, both still learning and mistakes will inevitably happen, but because of their charts, then there mistakes they’ll learn lessons from , not ones which are caused by their aging legs or a general partiality towards nonsense.

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Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. There’s a brand new Arsecast Extra for you if you haven’t had a chance to listen once, and we’ll have a preview podcast over on Patreon later.

Have a good one.

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