Gabriel Martinelli claims that as Mikel Arteta’s team aims to surpass last season, defeating champions Manchester City will only strengthen Arsenal’s innate confidence.

Despite having a fantastic 2022–23 season and capturing the attention of many, the Gunners ended up in second place as Pep Guardiola’s team won the championship for the third time in a row with a thrilling finale.

The reason Arsenal finished second was largely due to their failure to take a point off of them. On Sunday, they defeated City in the league for the first time since 2015, building on their victory against the treble champions in the Community Shield shootout.
After missing three weeks due to a hamstring injury, Martinelli’s half-time substitution proved to be a brilliant move as he gave the assault more momentum and eventually scored a late goal that deflected in off Nathan Ake to seal a 1-0 victory.

“We are aware of the difficulty of playing against them,” the Brazil international remarked. “The team gave a fantastic performance, and we won handily.

Of course (it increases our confidence that we can win the crown this season). As Arsenal, we never stop believing we will win the championship.

“We just need to keep going; it feels great to win against a big team like them.”

“A very memorable day for me. It was a wonderful moment for me, and I gave it everything I had to rejoin the squad.

“We won today, which is always fantastic, especially against the bigger clubs. I’m overjoyed.

After eight league games, Arsenal is still undefeated. They are tied with leaders Tottenham in terms of points and goal differential, with their fierce rivals leading solely on goals scored.

Martinelli stated, “You have to always believe when you play for Arsenal, and this is what we do,” as they attempt to win the Premier League title in north London for the first time since 2004.

“We always think we can win titles because we play for Arsenal.”

“A new year has begun. Our goal for this year is to surpass previous year’s performance and make improvements.

Indeed, I believe that (there is more depth). We have a fantastic crew, and having many of options is vital.

Due to a muscular injury that ended his run of 87 straight Premier League games, Arsenal’s top player Bukayo Saka was not present for Sunday’s victory, which made it all the more spectacular.

We are aware of our potential, Martinelli declared. “We are aware of his potential and his significance to us.

“We tried our hardest today to win the game for B, ourselves, and our fans.”

Following the international break, Arsenal will play Chelsea; however, Saka and Leandro Trossard will not play for their respective countries due to injuries.

Saka pulled out of Gareth Southgate’s England team due to a hamstring injury he sustained during the Gunners’ Champions League loss to Lens last week, and Trossard was substituted out of the Belgium team at the break on Sunday.

Wounded City will try to restart their title defense against Brighton at home.


For the first time since December 2018, Guardiola’s team has dropped three of their last four games across all competitions, including back-to-back Premier League games.

According to Bernardo Silva, a midfielder for City, “it’s a setback but it’s still the beginning.” It will be a long time before the season ends.

It was not the outcome we had hoped for. Playing against a formidable opponent is never simple.


“We thought both teams had a difficult game. Both are disciplined, hard, and uptight. We started off with a couple of opportunities.

Ultimately, it was a diversion. We gave them too much time to reflect at that point, in my opinion. We need to press harder and more forcefully.