When Arsenal spent £6m on a comparatively unknown Brazilian ahead by the title of Gabriel Martinelli again in July of 2019, many supporters at The Emirates should have been questioning why Raul Sanllehi had dedicated such an quantity on the signing of a largely inexperienced – albeit promising – participant.
Nonetheless, whereas it’s simple that Gunners supporters and Sanllehi didn’t precisely see eye to eye for almost all of his spell because the membership’s head of soccer, it should be stated that the 56-year-old very a lot hit the jackpot when bringing the winger to north London a bit of over three years in the past.
Certainly, after taking two seasons to seek out his ft in England, the 21-year-old properly and actually exploded over his 29 Premier League appearances final outing, scoring six objectives, registering six assists and creating 5 large probabilities for his teammates, along with taking a mean of 1.8 photographs, making 1.2 key passes and finishing 1.6 dribbles per recreation.
These returns noticed the £90k-per-week expertise common a particularly spectacular SofaScore match ranking of 6.93, rating him as Mikel Arteta’s eighth-best performer within the high flight of English soccer in 2021/22.
Nonetheless, over his seven league fixtures to this point this season, the winger has taken his recreation to a brand new degree, having already bagged three objectives and created three large probabilities for his aspect, in addition to taking a mean of three.0 photographs – 1.3 of which have hit the goal – made 2.3 key passes – the most of any Arsenal participant – and accomplished 2.3 dribbles – the second-most in Arteta’s squad – per recreation.
These metrics have seen the Brazil worldwide common a merely sensational SofaScore match ranking of 7.30, not solely rating him because the Gunners’ third-best performer within the league but in addition because the joint Twenty fourth-best participant within the Premier League as an entire – with the teenager enjoying a key function in Arsenal’s present top-of-the-table standing.
As such, whereas Martinelli’s returns on the pitch alone are sufficient to justify Sanllehi’s £6m transfer for the attacker again in 2019, the truth that the participant who Jurgen Klopp dubbed the “expertise of the century“, “unbelievable” and a “correct menace” now boasts a market valuation of £63m – a unprecedented 950% enhance on his preliminary price – properly and actually proves how the previous Arsenal head of soccer hit the jackpot on the Brazilian.
