Gabriel Martinelli has publicly backed Viktor Gy\u00f6keres to reach the high double figures this season, suggesting the Swedish striker could finish with \u201c30 or 40 goals a season.\u201d Martinelli pointed to the influence of Martin \u00d8degaard as a decisive factor in that projection after Arsenal\u2019s Champions League victory over Olympiacos.<\/p>\n
The towering 27-year-old has proved a handful for central defenders even when not scoring, something that was underscored by his performance in Arsenal\u2018s 2\u20130 win over Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday. Gy\u00f6keres outmuscled both Olympiacos centre backs in the build-up to Martinelli\u2019s opener, finishing the game with three shots, 0.47 expected goals and seven touches in the opposition penalty area.<\/p>\n
Bukayo Saka was also on the scoresheet midweek but it was \u00d8degaard who was the standout performer, with Martinelli believing the Norwegian will boost Gy\u00f6keres\u2019 goalscoring numbers in his debut term. The forward\u2019s physical presence and movement were highlighted as complementary to \u00d8degaard\u2019s ability to find team-mates in dangerous positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really happy with [Gy\u00f6keres], we trust him, we know his qualities and he\u2019s one of the top strikers in the world right now,\u201d said Martinelli after the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trust him and we are trying to give him the confidence to score and to do his best on the pitch to help us. It\u2019s really good to play with Martin there because he\u2019s always trying to find you, when we make the movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for Viktor as well, his qualities as well, as he likes to go in behind and attack the opposition\u2019s box. I think him playing with Martin as well is going to be good for him. We are going to try to give him the ball as much as possible to make him score, I don\u2019t know, 30 or 40 goals a season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinelli\u2019s assessment rests on Gy\u00f6keres converting chances that are created by \u00d8degaard and others, and on the striker maintaining the form shown against Olympiacos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martinelli says Gy\u00f6keres could score 30 or 40 goals as \u00d8degaard’s creativity creates clear openings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[826,1047,1019],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-champions-league","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}