‘Has to start’: Some Arsenal fans say £90k-a-week man would make huge difference tonight

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A number of Arsenal fans have called for Gabriel Martinelli to start in their crucial Europa League quarter-final second leg tonight.

The Gunners’ hopes of qualifying for the Champions League this season rest on the trip to Slavia Prague, and with the scoreline evenly poised at 1-1, they have a lot of work to do.

In the first leg, Arsenal looked timid and were wasteful for large parts of the match, though they did take the lead late on when Nicolas Pepe dinked the ball past the advancing Ondrej Kola.

However, Slavia netted in injury time, a corner kick bouncing towards the far post, where Tomas Holes dove to head home, Bernd Leno unable to keep the effort out.

Arsenal go into the second leg on the back of a 3-0 win at Sheffield United, during which Martinelli was handed a rare start and took the opportunity with both hands.

The £90,000-a-week forward scored the Gunners’ second goal and was relentless in his pressing, doing his chances of getting another start tonight no harm at all.

And numerous Arsenal fans really want him in the XI: