Gabriel Martinelli has reportedly been presented with an annual salary above $16.4 million (£12 million) to leave Arsenal for Al Hilal, with The Times reporting that the proposal has brought a possible exit into focus.

The Saudi Pro League club have moved into negotiations, and the size of the package appears to have shifted Martinelli’s position. Although the figures do not reach the level associated with Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema, they are still substantial enough to reshape what the Arsenal forward could earn over the course of a career. The key difference is the tax structure. In Saudi Arabia, Martinelli would theoretically keep the full amount of his annual salary.

That would place him in a different bracket from Arsenal’s current top earners. On a headline basis, the proposed deal would put Martinelli alongside Martin Ødegaard and Declan Rice. But after tax is taken into account, the comparison changes sharply. Arsenal players are said to surrender around 47% of their wages to HMRC, meaning Martinelli could end up taking home almost twice as much as Ødegaard and Rice.

Even Bukayo Saka, who became Arsenal’s highest paid player when he signed a new deal earlier this year, is not believed to approach the level Martinelli may command in the Kingdom.

The reported take-home annual salaries underline the gap:

Gabriel Martinelli: $16.4 million
Bukayo Saka: $11.3 million
Bruno Guimarães: $11.3 million
Kai Havertz: $10.5 million
William Saliba: $9.4 million
Martin Ødegaard: $9 million
Declan Rice: $9 million

Martinelli signed his current Arsenal contract in February 2023, midway through the most productive senior season of his career. By the end of that year, he had scored 15 Premier League goals, matching the total he would produce across the next three seasons.

The Premier League has wasted little time in reminding everyone why pre-season certainty rarely survives opening weekend.

A composed Friday night start was followed by a string of heavy results and eye-catching shifts across Saturday and Sunday. For a division long billed as one of the most unpredictable in years, the first round of fixtures offered exactly that, forcing plenty of early assumptions into revision.

Arsenal made the clearest statement. Their 3-0 win over Coventry City was controlled, calm and entirely in keeping with a team defending a title. Coventry, in their first top-flight match in 25 years, were worn down gradually and given little encouragement. With the additions made this summer and an already deep squad, the champions look well placed to make another serious run at the top.

Aston Villa, by contrast, left the south coast with real concerns. Their defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion was severe, with the game effectively gone at 4-0 inside 31 minutes and João Gomes later sent off before half-time. Unai Emery has repeatedly found solutions in the past, but the scale of change around the squad means there is now a bedding-in process to manage.

Newcastle United also left their opener with more than frustration. A late Dominik Szoboszlai penalty denied them victory against Liverpool, yet Matthias Jassle’s influence was already visible. There is a clearer identity to their play, and the vertical approach looks suited to a team and support base that should respond to it.

Brentford, meanwhile, may have unearthed a major success in Mamadou Sangaré. The midfielder impressed in the 3-0 defeat of Tottenham Hotspur, and the praise from teammates has been immediate. Caoimhín Kelleher called him “superb,” while Keane Lewis-Potter described him as a “joy to play with.”

Among the promoted sides, Hull City and Ipswich Town both delivered encouraging responses after Coventry’s rough start. Hull beat Manchester United 2-0, while Ipswich edged Sunderland 2-1 late on. Neither club is under any illusion about the task ahead, but both showed enough to suggest they can compete.

At the other end of the conversation, Sunderland’s opening defeat will sharpen questions about a second-season hangover, while Arsenal’s brightest argument may already be individual acclaim. Martin Ødegaard is back, baby!

Gabriel Martinelli has moved closer to an Arsenal exit after becoming the latest player to clash with Mikel Arteta’s uncompromising approach to squad management.

Reports now suggest the Brazil international is “open” to leaving the Premier League champions, after Arteta made clear where he believes the winger stands in the pecking order this season. The Arsenal manager has shown little flexibility, leaving Martinelli out of the matchday squad for the first two games of the new campaign while the player has continued training with the first team.

Dialogue between the pair has reportedly been limited, but the message from the club remains plain: Martinelli’s future is likely elsewhere. That marks a change in stance for the 25-year-old, who had previously resisted interest from Turkish champions Galatasaray. At that stage, he was said to be prioritising a move to one of Europe’s leading clubs if his prospects in north London disappeared.

His omission from Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Coventry City appears to have sharpened the situation further. The Athletic reported that Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal have now entered the picture and that Martinelli is “open to the possibility.” Arsenal are also understood to be prepared to do business for about $81.8 million (£60 million). Fabrizio Romano later added that “official club-to-club contact” has already been made.

Martinelli would not be the first high-profile Arsenal player to fall out of favour under Arteta. The manager’s tenure has been marked by the departures of Mesut Özil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Emi Martínez, Nicolas Pépé, Bernd Leno, Mattéo Guendouzi and Aaron Ramsdale, among others.

Arsenal have often accepted those exits despite financial damage, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s $47.2 million move to Liverpool in 2017 still their record sale. Martinelli could surpass that figure if a transfer is completed.

The club have already invested more than $260 million on four first-team arrivals this summer, and Arteta and chief executive Richard Garlick have said Arsenal will only pursue players who can “change the dial.” As Arteta put it: “I think for the margins to improve, there are very few players in the market that are available to do that and bring that to the club,”