Arsenal news: Why Martinelli leaves the Gunners with the feeling he could have been more

There is something special about Gabriel Martinelli's journey at Arsenal. Not just for what the Brazilian did on the pitch, but for what his arrival represented.

In 2019, at just 18, he left Ituano straight for the Premier League. There was no loan spell at another European club, no adaptation period in a smaller league, no stopover at an intermediate side.

The youngster who had played just 34 professional matches for the Sao Paulo club, scoring ten goals, went straight to London. Seven years on, Martinelli leaves Arsenal in almost turbulent fashion.

He has agreed a move to Al-Hilal, becoming the most expensive sale in Gunners history (around £60m), and the second best-paid Brazilian in the world, behind only Vinicius Junior.

But he leaves as a Premier League champion, one of the longest-serving players in the squad, and someone who took part in the entire rebuild carried out by the club since Mikel Arteta's arrival.

But he also leaves with an inevitable feeling: he could have been more. He showed the traits of a winger capable of reaching the level of the league's very best.

His pace, his aggression attacking depth and his instinct for getting into the box made him an important piece of the Arsenal side that returned to competing for major honours. But he was never able to sustain that level and become the elite player he once seemed destined to be.

Martinelli made a leap almost no one in Brazilian football makes

Martinelli represents one of the most unusual stories to emerge from recent Brazilian football development. He came through Corinthians' academy, moved to Ituano, and made his professional debut at just 16 years and nine months old. In little more than a season of professional football, he caught Arsenal's attention, and the club signed him in July 2019.

For a few months, it looked as though Arsenal had unearthed a genuine phenomenon. Martinelli scored 10 goals in his first season at the club, including two in a 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest on his full debut. He also scored against Chelsea and in the Europa League.

What was most striking, however, was the way he played. He did not look like a teenager simply trying to survive in the Premier League: he attacked defenders without hesitation, pressed centre-backs, accelerated towards the box and showed unusual physical intensity. He was quickly absorbed into the project.

And when Arteta took charge of Arsenal, Martinelli became one of the players symbolising the club's new generation. His peak arrived in 2022-23. Arsenal began that season with a very clear attacking identity.

Bukayo Saka occupied the right, Martin Odegaard linked the play through the middle, Gabriel Jesus offered mobility up front, and Martinelli provided depth down the left.

Martinelli finished the campaign with 15 goals and five assists in the Premier League, his best numbers to date. He played 36 matches, started 35, and finished level with Odegaard as Arsenal's top scorer in the league. Saka, who was already beginning to establish his own standard, had 13 goals and 11 assists.

And there was genuine efficiency behind those numbers. Martinelli scored 15 times from chances valued at just 9.13 xG, a difference of +5.87, the third-highest positive margin in the Premier League that season, according to the league's own data.

That season was not simply a collection of statistics. Martinelli scored on the opening day of the Premier League against Crystal Palace, becoming the first Brazilian to score a season's opening goal in the competition.

Against Liverpool, in one of the most important matches of the campaign, he needed just 58 seconds to open the scoring in a 3-2 win at the Emirates.

Against Everton, when Arsenal needed to respond to Manchester City's pressure in the title race, he scored twice in a 4-0 rout, reaching double figures for the season at that point.

Martinelli showed his own moment in the spotlight, but Saka took it as his own

It is impossible to tell Martinelli's story without mentioning Bukayo Saka. The two arrived at Arsenal practically together as part of the club's rebuild, and for a long time were seen as two sides of the same coin. Martinelli had explosiveness, aggression and the ability to attack depth.

Saka had a wider range of tools. The Englishman could receive the ball wide, cut inside, combine with teammates, carry the ball, cross, finish and create for others. Gradually, he became less dependent on space and more capable of creating his own.

That gap became increasingly clear over time. While Saka developed from promising talent to star, and eventually into one of the Premier League's leading players, Martinelli seemed to remain locked into a more specific version of himself.

His football continued to be extremely effective whenever there was space to attack. But Arsenal increasingly came up against opponents better prepared to sit in a low block, and that context demanded a different set of tools. Martinelli needed to become more refined.

He needed to combine better centrally, find solutions in tight spaces, produce more decisive passes and be able to decide a play even when he could not simply run in behind the full-back. That leap never came consistently.

What matters most for this analysis is understanding that the collective context did not get worse, in fact, Arsenal improved. Individually, Martinelli became less decisive, while competition for his spot increased. Trossard gained more minutes, Gabriel Jesus could operate wide, Havertz began covering different zones. Arsenal gained more attacking alternatives.

Rather than becoming indispensable, Martinelli started having to fight for game time. That is perhaps the biggest difference between his trajectory and Saka's: Saka developed alongside Arsenal. Martinelli ended up being left slightly behind.

What was missing for Martinelli to make that final leap at Arsenal?

Martinelli had practically every physical tool needed to become an elite forward: he is quick, presses well, attacks depth with real quality, moves intelligently off the ball, and is aggressive in one-on-one situations when he can run at speed. And he proved, in 2022-23, that he also had the ability to finish at a very high level.

But players at Saka's level need more than that. They need to find solutions when the game does not offer space, manipulate defenders, and know when to accelerate and when to pause.They need to produce even when the initial plan does not work. It is precisely in that kind of refinement that Martinelli appears to have stalled.

That does not mean he got worse as a player. It means the rest of football moved forward faster than certain parts of his game. That is why his Arsenal exit carries a bittersweet feeling.

He leaves as a player who had an important spell at the club, became an English champion, and leaves behind a positive story in London, but with the sense that Arsenal never quite discovered exactly what the ceiling was for that kid from Ituano.

Perhaps he will still find that ceiling elsewhere. And, at 25, there is still time for that. Martinelli was an important piece in helping the Gunners reach the top, but he was unable to remain one of the stars responsible for keeping them there.

His story at the club, then, is not one of a player who failed. It is the story of someone who succeeded, but who, for whatever reason, never quite made that final leap that always seemed within reach. He leaves as a Premier League champion, with more than 60 goals for the club, and a relationship built over seven years with the supporters.

But looking back at that 18-year-old who used to run at any full-back in England, there remains the feeling that there was still even more to expect from him.