Neville was speaking on Sky Sports (broadcast on 3/9; 18:15) after an 85th minute corner from the Brazilian prompted a chorus of groans around the Emirates as fans started to lose their patience.
Gabriel Martinelli had a really mixed game against Erik ten Hag’s side. He was electric for much of the first-half up against Aaron Wan Bissaka. However, his delivery from set-pieces proved to be extremely poor.
He failed to reach the front post on several occasions throughout the game. And as the game seemed destined to finish 1-1, one more poor ball in from Martinelli really frustrated the Arsenal fans.
Neville criticises Martinelli after Arsenal win
The winger squandered another chance to put a dangerous ball in. And that clearly managed to annoy Neville, as well as the majority of the supporters inside the ground.
Martinelli Neville
Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images
“How many times has he done that? How many times has he done that today? The groans around the stadium follow him,” he told Sky Sports.
Thankfully for Arsenal, a couple more golden opportunities would present themselves. Declan Rice sent the ground into a frenzy by beating Andre Onana after a corner from the opposite side of the pitch.And Gabriel Jesus ensured that the points were safe shortly after. The Brazilian did brilliantly to dance through and create the chance for himself. And he reminded everyone of how good he can be with such a good finish.
Martinelli’s quality is absolutely in no doubt at all. He is arguably part of the best winger partnership in world football right now with Saka.
And it did appear that a couple of the corners were intentionally sent towards the near post. But some were indeed extremely poor.
However, it is hard to imagine that anyone at Arsenal will be thinking too much about the quality of Martinelli’s corners over the next couple of days.
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