suburbangooners.com

Is Martinelli’s injury record a cause for concern?

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo This morning I find myself thinking about Gabriel Martinelli.

One of the longest-serving players in this Arsenal squad, it’s easy to forget that the Brazilian is still just 24 years old and doesn’t turn 25 until next June. He broke through with us properly at 18 under Emery and had some early impressive Europa League appearances I recall. In those early days, I seem to remember many of us thinking that he had the physical profile and running power of a player who could / would eventually evolve into a centre forward and I don’t think that has ever really gone away, with some I’m sure even suggesting it last season when we had The Great Striker Crisis of 2025 (There’s some irony to the fact that we went back for a sequel of that as early as October this season).

Arteta never favoured this, we all know our recent Arsenal history, Martinelli has remained – and I suspect will always remain – a wide forward. But with Leandro Trossard hitting such form this season (little shameless plug again to my tip of the cap for Leo after the Slavia game here) as he’s done, one thing that is also overlooked with Leo is the fact that he is, broadly speaking, almost always available. If TransferMarkt is to be believed (and I have no reason to think not) then he’s not even picked up an injury since 2021/22 and even then the last one was an illness. He also had a slight hammy and an elbow injury that season, but he’s been an ever-available option for Arteta since he arrived and I suspect that also goes some way to explaining why he’s one of our top performers at that end of the pitch in 2025. Whilst so many others around him were falling, Leo was there through both of our striker crises events in 2025, although this time he’s added even more end-product and good performances. If Martinelli is back for the North London Derby, I don’t see him getting in ahead of the Belgian right now.

But it is this checking and double checking of how reliable Trossard has been since he joined, that got me to thinking about Martinelli and his own injury record for us. And whist not Diaby-levels of worrying, Gabriel Martinelli almost always has a period in the season where he’s injured.

2025/26 = four games and 26 days missed so far

2024/25 = four games and 30 days missed in total

2023/24 = 10 games missed and 46 days missed in total

2022/23 = three games and 19 days missed in total

As I say, it’s not a ‘terrible’ record and it’s not punctuated with lots of injuries all of the time, but there always seems to be a point in the season in which he’s absent for a month and whilst that can just happen to elite footballers given the volume of games they play, at 24 with an injury record that currently reads 68 games missed in six seasons, it’s clear that he’s not a guy who has the durability to last a whole season.

That might always explain somewhat why he’s been used as an impact sub for a fair bit this season. It might also explain the Madueke signing a bit more too. Trossard is in good form at the moment, that’s great, but Martinelli will find at least some point in the season in which he’ll break down. It’s just been frustrating that it’s also the point in which Madueke (who also has a similar record to Martinelli that I’ll get to on another day) would and could be used.

He’s not going to improve his fitness record as he gets older either. He is an explosive power athlete who relies on his rapid pace to beat his man. That doesn’t improve as you get older and it certainly doesn’t improve when you start picking up more and more injuries. So whilst I was on my run this morning I did find myself asking whether his injury record over the six seasons he’s been with The Arsenal is something that we should be worried about.

Perhaps his role could and should always be that of a first team rotation option who plays around the 2,500 – 2,750 minutes? Last season he actually played a decent amount and got 3,500 minutes in total, but I wonder if we’ll ever see that from him again and I wonder if Arteta has thought and realised that too, hence stockpiling an additional two players in that wide left position, with Eze as an additional option too.

Martinelli’s been good when he’s played for us this season, especially as an impact sub and I hope his return will provide us with more firepower, as well as more opportunity to rotate and spread the goals around. But I think in terms of a long term future as the first choice left winger, I do wonder whether Arteta is thinking whether he needs to solve that particular challenge. Maybe that’s Madueke. Maybe that’s Eze. Maybe it’s a permanent rotation of the two and Martinelli can still play his role for many season’s to come. But Arteta is a man who is ruthless and I think he will get to a point where he thinks that if the injuries do keep appearing, he’ll have a think about evolution of his squad. That might cause an issue for Martinelli. We can all say that he loves Martinelli – and he does – but he loved Zinchenko, Tomiyasu, Ramsdale, Tierney et all, yet all have ultimately been moved on as he continues to build an elite squad.

This is all just Wednesday musings today by the way. I’m in no way suggesting this is the beginning of the end of Martinelli’s career. But I do think it is something that we should all keep an eye on.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts. catch you then.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.