Gabriel Martinelli has been warned to brace himself for a stern talking-to from Mikel Arteta after his mistake cost Arsenal a victory at Fulham.
The Brazilian was brought on as a substitute for Leandro Trossard around the 60-minute mark at Craven Cottage. He put in an energetic performance in the last half-hour, but will likely be ruing his actions, especially one moment in particular.
With just two minutes remaining, Martinelli found himself on the left touchline up against Fulham’s defensive line. However, as the ball was played to him, the winger had moved forward, beyond the last defender.
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Martinelli then delivered an excellent cross for Bukayo Saka to head in, but the goal was disallowed due to the Brazilian being offside. This sparked an irate reaction from Gunners legend Paul Merson, who labelled Martinelli’s actions “criminal”.
“He is offside and in football terms it’s criminal what Martinelli has done. I can’t express enough how in football terms, you just can’t be that. You cannot be offside, you’re looking along the line, you’ve got pace,” Merson commented on Sky Sports, reports the Mirror.
(Image: No credit)
“He’s electric so he’s not even someone who’s got to try and nick a yard and play on the edge. He can give a yard or two. I’ll be surprised if he isn’t on the end of one in the dressing room when he gets in by the manager. Honestly.
“He even knows. You could see it on his face after, he knew you can’t do that. You just cannot be offside when you’re looking along that line. The one thing when looking along the line is do not be offside, it’s as simple as that.”
Arsenal had to claw their way back after Raul Jimenez’s early strike put the Cottagers ahead. Gunners captain Martin Odegaard expressed his disappointment at the missed opportunity to narrow the lead on top-placed Liverpool.
“We dominated most of the game. The first half wasn’t great. We were a bit sloppy and lacked energy and power. The second half was a lot better. It’s frustrating not to win,” Odegaard shared with Sky Sports.
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“We were close in the end with the goal. They’re a good team. They know how to defend. A solid block. We didn’t do enough today. We have to learn from that and straight back in for the next one.”
“We have to focus on ourselves. We don’t care about the other teams [in the title race]. We did a lot of good things. We have to do more and put the ball in the box more times.”
“Maybe be a bit more direct and aggressive. We could have won it in the end. It’s a very long way to go. We’ve said hundreds of times we have to keep going game by game.”