Journalist says £90k-a-week Arsenal man won’t play against Tottenham this weekend

Add as preferred source on Google

Arsenal journalist Charles Watts says that he doesn’t think there’s any chance that Gabriel Martinelli is fit to face Tottenham on Sunday.

Watts was speaking on his YouTube channel and shared that he thought Arteta was merely being allusive about the injury.

Watts compared the situation to that of William Saliba last season when Arteta consistently refused to rule the Frenchman out. 

He said: “Look, we’ve heard that from Mikel before, I can’t see any way that Gabriel Martinelli is involved against Tottenham.

“Just like last season when Saliba had that back injury and every game Mikel was always like ‘maybe he’ll make it, we’ll see, we’ll have to assess it further’.

“But look, Gabriel Martinelli has got a hamstring injury, I can’t imagine he misses this game, doesn’t train yesterday, yet he’ll be involved against Tottenham.

“I just don’t see it.”

This will undoubtedly be a blow to both Mikel Arteta and Arsenal fans.

Martinelli is already a crucial player for Arsenal and would have been key against a resurged Tottenham side. 

Instead, it would now seem that Leandro Trossard will take his place.

Watts says Martinelli will be missing for Arsenal against Tottenham

Of course, Trossard replaced Martinelli after his injury against Everton on Sunday.

The Belgian ultimately won the game for Mikel Arteta’s side and is surely a shoe-in for the spot on Sunday.

However, that will depend on how Arteta deploys his side against PSV Eindhoven.

£90k-a-week Martinelli will obviously be missing tonight as well and therefore there is an opportunity to be had.

Given Trossard is likely to start against Tottenham, Arsenal fans may see Reiss Nelson or Emile Smith Rowe get a rare start in Martinelli’s absence.

Either way, Arteta will surely be gutted to be without his star man.

There’s certainly some key selection calls for Arteta to continue to make in the coming weeks, and he’s getting them right for now.