Mikel Arteta reveals he is ‘happy’ with Gabriel Martinelli and confirmed that the Brazilian forward won't move on loan in January.
Martinelli hasn’t featured in the Premier League since the opening two weeks of the 2021/22 season, a period during which Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were recovering.
To the question of why Martinelli hadn't featured recently, Arteta replied.
"Well because of the amount of players we have in those positions, he had some games that he played.
"He started against Brentford, he started against Chelsea and he started another game. Unfortunately he got an injury last week, it is a minor injury and we don’t know if he’s going to be available for Monday"
"We have a lot of trust with Gabi and we need to find space for him to grow within the squad.
"If you look at the number of games he’s played the injuries have been a big setback for him, we sometimes forget his age and we need to try and help him maintain that balance because you can generate frustration that comes out of, in my opinion, a not very realistic diagnosis and we need time."
When asked whether a loan move was an option for the 20-year-old, he added.
Source - metro Join us on Telegram!/ Follow us on Twitter!"I’m very happy with him we are not thinking about anything like that."