Gabriel Martinelli up against Fulham's Harry Wilson during Arsenal's draw at Craven Cottage
The goals have dried up for Gabriel Martinelli over the last few campaigns
If you were to ask 60,000 Arsenal fans at the Emirates to name the three best players in Mikel Arteta’s squad, the most popular names would almost certainly be Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba. Arsenal’s most decisive forward, most creative midfielder and most impressive defender.
These three players are all different in their skillsets and their responsibilities, but they share a common trait: they play on the right side of the pitch. Saka as the right winger, Odegaard as the playmaker behind him and Saliba as the right-sided central defender.
It is little wonder, then, that so much of Arsenal’s play is funnelled towards their right wing. In the Premier League this season, 45 per cent of their attacks have been down that flank, compared to just 31 per cent on the left. On average, their right-sided players receive the ball 30 more times per game than those on the left.
“With Saka and Odegaard, they always attack on the right,” said Thomas Tuchel, then in charge of Bayern Munich, ahead of his Champions League meeting with Arsenal last season. “They try to create an overlap there.”
When Saka and Odegaard are on top form, their right flank is almost unstoppable. Against Nottingham Forest and Sporting CP last month, for example, those two players repeatedly destroyed the opposition defence, creating chance after chance, leading to goal after goal.
A problem can arise, though, when opposition teams are able to stop Arsenal’s right-sided players. If that particular offensive weapon is blunted, it seems that Arteta’s entire attack can falter. Tuchel found a way of nullifying Saka and Odegaard in the Champions League by playing two left-backs at once, while Fulham did the same this weekend by asking their two central midfielders to repeatedly shuffle towards that flank.
At times like these, Arsenal need more from their left side than they are currently getting. Opponents such as Fulham are able to commit bodies to Saka’s side, knowing that those on the other flank are simply not as dangerous. Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli were afforded plenty of space at Craven Cottage on Sunday, but the sad truth for Arsenal is that they did little with it.
Trossard and Martinelli can both be exceptional attackers in Arsenal’s system, offering invention and spark, but neither has been able to produce the consistency that Saka provides on the other side. Trossard often makes more of an impact as a substitute than a starter, while Martinelli has a tendency to drift out of games. Raheem Sterling, meanwhile, is evidently regarded more as a right-wing backup to Saka than a potential left-wing starter.
In the Premier League this season, Trossard and Martinelli have been involved in nine goals (six goals, three assists) between them. Saka alone has been involved in 15 (five goals, 10 assists) despite often being the player who is double-marked by the opposition.
There are mitigating circumstances. Since the departure of Granit Xhaka in the summer of 2023, the entire left side of the team has been less stable than the right. Last season Kai Havertz played on the left of the midfield three for a time, and then Declan Rice moved there. Neither are as creative as Odegaard.
This season, Rice and new signing Mikel Merino have shared that left-sided “number eight” role. The left-back behind them has changed frequently, too, with Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Myles Lewis-Skelly all playing there at different times.
None of this has helped Martinelli, who produced his best football when he had the settled pair of Xhaka and Zinchenko alongside him in the 2022/23 season. He scored 15 league goals that year. Since then, he has scored only nine in the last 48 league games.
Still, the feeling remains that the left side of Arsenal’s attack remains the one position in which they are most in need of an upgrade. Either through an improvement in end product and consistency from Trossard and Martinelli, or through the transfer market.
A winger, rather than a striker? Well, with increasing uncertainty over the future of Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal might need both. But in Kai Havertz they have a centre-forward who, at his current rate of scoring, is set to finish this campaign with more than 20 goals in all competitions.
Arsenal, as a club, know that their left flank can be improved. How else can you explain their willingness to pay more than £60 million for Mykhailo Mudryk, a left winger, before he joined Chelsea instead? How else can you explain their long-term interest in Pedro Neto, before he too moved to Stamford Bridge? They also wanted Raphinha, then of Leeds United, before he went to Barcelona, and are known to be admirers of Spain winger Nico Williams.
Only time will tell whether a move for a big-money winger is realistic. Such deals are hard to do in the summer window, let alone in January. What seems certain, though, is that an extra level of dynamism and decisiveness is required on that flank, either from the players who are currently at Arsenal, or from someone new.
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