Young Martinelli leads Arsenal's revival vs West Ham News

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Young Martinelli leads Arsenal's revival vs West Ham

By Daily Sports on December 10, 2019

Again Arsenal looked dead and buried at the end of the first half against West Ham in the EPL on Monday night as they have been for much of the season.

With a dreadful form and with confidence on the lowest ebb, The Gunners headed to West Ham knowing anything but a win could potentially drag them into an early relegation dogfight in the premier league, yet it was a very nervous Freddie Ljungberg team that played without conviction against the Hammers in the first half.

When Angelo Ogbonna put the Homye side ahead in the 38th minute with a header off a cross that the Arsenal defence yet again failed to deal with, Arsenal's problems were amplified all the more and it was difficult to see them getting anything from the game.

If there was one little spark though for Arsenal, it came in the shape of an 18-yeat old striker Gabriel Martinelli who was making his first start for The Gunners.

Arsenal mounted a spirited comeback in a devastating 12 minutes spell in the second half and it was Martinelli who began the comeback, showing agility and positional intelligence to finish a beautiful cutback cross from left back Sead Kolasinac.

Nicholas Pepe took a cue from Martinelli to score a sumptuous curler of a strike, while skipper Pierre Emery-Aubamyeyang was on hand the shoot in the third goal to completely lift the mood of the players and fans in North London.

With the expensive assemblage of stars Arsenal has, for all the big names, the big signings and the even bigger salaries among this Arsenal team, it was the performance of teenager Gabriel Martinelli that stood out. He also showed a lot of the qualities that have been missing during the club's dismal run of form.

The Brazilian exceptional throughout the game. It wasn't just the finish, a measured strike into the corner of the net. It was already apparent in his previous appearances that he was capable of that - netting seven times in six starts for the Gunners in the cup competitions.

This was the night he became the youngest Arsenal player to score on his first Premier League start and the fourth-youngest scorer for the club in the competition full stop. But regardless of his age, Martinelli showed his more experienced team-mates the way out of this rut.

Interim manager Ljungberg was quoted after the game to have said he decided on featuring more of his experienced players in last week's home loss to Brighton as he felt their experience would help dig the club out of the whole but that didn't work.

Martinelli has now shown there is another way.

This young forward has quality, of course, but plenty at Arsenal have that. It is his desire that his team-mates must replicate. If that happens, perhaps Arsenal still have a chance of turning their season around.