Paul Scholes believes Gabriel Martinelli has ‘gone backwards’ under Mikel Arteta and feels Arsenal need more goals from their midfielders in order to win the Premier League this season.
Martinelli was one of Arsenal’s standout performers in the 2022/23 campaign, scoring 15 goals in all competitions.
However, the Brazil international followed that up with just eight goals last season and so far this term he has scored just four times in 22 appearances.
Speaking on The Overlap’s latest Fan Debate, both Scholes and Jamie Carragher raised doubts over Martinelli and the former Manchester United midfielder believes Arteta needs more output from his own midfielders in order to overtake Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
‘Do you think it’s necessarily a striker or just another top attacking player?’ Carragher said of Arsenal..
‘I look at Martinelli and actually think probably three years ago when this team was just getting built, it felt like Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli were all at the same sort of level, looked like they could go on and be top players.
‘I think the other two have, I’m not sure about Martinelli.’
Scholes then replied: ‘Yeah, it feels like he’s gone backwards a little bit.
‘You thought a year, 18 months ago, ‘wow, what a player’, and he has stalled a little bit.
‘He’s still young, isn’t he? We said pre-season a centre-forward was always something that we felt Arsenal needed, and for some reason I don’t think the manager did.
‘Then we all thought Odegaard coming back into the team would create more and I think he has made them a better team and I think eventually they will be okay. But January is so hard, who is out there?
‘I think you need goals from everywhere, and I don’t see them coming from the midfield area for Arsenal.
‘You think Declan Rice could be that man to go and get you 10, 15 goals but I’ve never actually seen it, and I don’t see where other than Saka scoring, Havertz drying up as well, I think Odegaard is still getting chances and eventually with the quality he’s got he is going to contribute but I think they all have to contribute.
‘At some point you’ve got to try to affect the game. I think too many times these days the midfield try to stay there, try to control the game, help defensively, but when you’re a midfield player it’s every aspect of the game, someone different has got to try and win a game, they don’t seem to be thinking about that. It’s, ‘I’m playing my position, I’m alright’, not taking responsibility. To win a league everyone has to contribute and I don’t think they all are.’
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