Footballing icon Ronaldinho has previously told Mikel Arteta that he has his very own Ronaldo Nazario in the form of Gabriel Martinelli.
Martinelli joined the Unai Emery revolution in the summer of 2019, with his £6million transfer going under the radar at the time given the Gunners paid a club-record £72million to bring Ivorian winger Nicolas Pepe to the club in the same window.
However, the youngster hit the ground running, netting 10 goals in just 26 appearances across all competitions in his debut campaign - before a nasty knee injury kept him on the sidelines for five months.
The Brazilian has since struggled to get back into the first-team, often reduced to late cameos, starting just two league games this term - both of which were back in August.
Now could be the perfect time to reintegrate the talented forward given Arteta's side have struggled in the final third of late, failing to score in five of their 12 Premier League games this season.
Former Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho has previously hailed Martinelli's potential and perhaps Arsenal should decide to hand him a start against Newcastle United this weekend given their current goalscoring woes.
“We as Brazilians are very excited about him and his future,” Ronaldinho told the Mirror back in January 2020. “It is one thing to have the talent, but another at the age of 18 to have the confidence.
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“He reminds me of Ronaldo. In his first season in Europe, he scored 30 goals and people were thinking, ‘who is this 18-year-old Brazilian kid?’
“He wanted the ball, he would run at players, there was no fear no matter what players or team he was playing against – and I see that similar attitude in Martinelli.
"He just wants to be on the ball and score goals.”
