Arsenal victory raises questions of title challenges and just how bright Martinelli’s star will shine.
Fans must have patience to see the true significance of yesterday’s result at the Emirates, but the signs are excellent for the Gunners.
For now, Arsenal finally landing a substantial blow against a team they have long suffered against will serve them well psychologically. Talk of the title, as always in October, is premature. We will need more time and evidence to accurately assess the trajectory of Arteta’s side, and in particular, that of 21-year-old Gabriel Martinelli, who terrorised a veteran Liverpool team that has won everything over the last few years. He is operating at the very highest level and leaves us to ponder whether his current form can continue and how far he could go in the footballing world.
When analysing the significance of yesterday’s result, context is crucial: Liverpool defeated Arsenal on 3 occasions last season, aggregating 8–0 over 4 games. This included a League Cup semi-final win away at the Emirates despite the absence of their African stars. The season before, despite suffering immensely with injuries, Liverpool grabbed 6 points from the Gunners; Arsenal’s sole victory in the last 13 encounters came after Liverpool had already claimed the title in 2020, Van Dijk was practically still drunk, stumbling around the field aimlessly as Lacazette and Nelson sunk his team of champions in an empty, lifeless Emirates.
Diogo Jota (7 goals in 8) and Roberto Firmino (10 goals in 17) have consistently relied on the generosity of Arsenal defenders to kickstart goalscoring runs, even Darwin Nunez now boasts 1 in 1; regardless of how sequences of play pan out, Liverpool’s attackers have always had the last laugh in these encounters, until now.
Arteta, as a former Everton player and City coach, has been visibly frustrated by his sides continuous capitulations against the Reds, in Arsenal’s ‘All or Nothing’ series, he describes the only time in his career he gave up, a 5–1 thrashing away at Anfield. In the same fixture of the 2021/22 season, he went ballistic on the touchline, igniting the Anfield crowd and spurning his sides’ chances of a potentially momentous result. Yesterday, there was a learned patience to his side’s play. Pegged back twice, they responded like a team intent on the title.
The ever pressing, ever scurrying Martinelli was the spearhead used to stab Liverpool’s hopes of the title dead; Klopp has admitted as much. His energy and application is unmatched in the Premier League, he managed to outdo Luis Diaz in a first half sprint to the ball, earning his side a free kick and the Colombian a yellow card in the process. This demonstrates the nous and professionalism which lay the foundations for what could be a monumental career.
The battle with Trent Alexander-Arnold was predictably dominated by the attacker, he could smell blood and took less than a minute to draw some with an expert finish against his compatriot Alisson.
In the age of superstars such as Haaland and Mbappe, who blister onto the scene and remain there, Martinelli has bided his time, improving over recenet years, in conjunction with his team to become one of the best in the land. 12 goal involvements last season perhaps doesn’t capture the imagination as thoroughly as Haaland’s goal-every-30 policy, but the foundation has clearly been there for some time, as Jurgen Klopp has previously attested in 2019: “He’s really unbelievable…So young, looks so mature already, is a proper threat. Yeah, he looks like a really decent player.” This season, Martinelli has so far made the step up, 6 goal involvements in 9 games for a table-topping team at the age of 21 (not to mention another extremely harshly ruled out at Old Trafford)- this is insane. The Brazillian is likely to be trashing Champions League defences in 12 months, at what point does the reality set in that he could be one of the greatest in the world?
As with most big early season clashes, time is required to really assess the magnitude of what we’ve just witnessed. If the Gunners go on to win leagues in the coming years, this result will be bookmarked in history as the day Arsenal usurped Liverpool as City’s chief contenders. If Martinelli goes on to win top honours down the line, perhaps we may take note of yesterday’s game as the greatest forecast offered for the upcoming storm.
