“He said, ‘Rio he could be anyone he wants to be’” - Rio Ferdinand on how Arteta compared struggling Arsenal star to Liverpool hero

Rio Ferdinand revealed in a past discussion that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta compared Gabriel Martinelli to Liverpool hero Luis Suarez. The Bazilian forward is currently in poor form for the Gunners and sees his position in the starting line-up threatened by Leandro Trossard.

Martinelli joined the north London side in 2019 from Ituano for a reported €7.1 million and has gone on to score 45 times and provide 27 assists in 194 appearances.

Discussing how highly the forward is held by his manager amid a discussion about his recent poor form on his YouTube Channel Rio Ferdinand said (via Metro):

"I spoke to Mikel Arteta about two or three years ago at Bournemouth and in the tunnel, I asked when he first burst onto the scene, ‘How good can this kid be, who is he like, give me a name?' He said, ‘Rio, he could be anyone he wants to be, there’s a bit of Luis Suarez about him in the way he just runs."

"It took me back a bit because I hadn’t seen enough, I’d seen glimpses and was like ‘wow’."

Gabriel Martinelli has much to do at Arsenal if he hopes to repay his manager's belief that he can become a player like Luis Suarez. The Liverpool hero bagged 82 goals and 34 assists in 133 games for the English giants before he moved to Barcelona.

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"We really wanted it" - Mikel Arteta reveals Arsenal's disappointment at dropped points

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has lamented his side's drop in points in their race to close the gap between themselves and table-topping Liverpool. The north London outfit is in third place on the table, six points behind the Merseysiders, who have a game in hand.

The Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw with London rivals Fulham at Craven Cottage at the weekend. The result left much to be desired for the Spanish tactician, who told the official Premier League website:

"I'm gutted that we didn’t win it, because I think we deserved to win from the beginning to the end. We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. You cannot cry about it, it’s the reality of this league, it’s the beauty of this league."

"We really wanted it [to close the gap to Liverpool]. We have good momentum and it was a really crucial moment for us to go for it. We certainly did. We certainly tried and we were so close to doing it. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to achieve it. If we continue to play at this level with the threat that we are, we are going to win a lot of games."

Mikel Arteta hopes to lead Arsenal to the Premier League this season and end their two-decade-long wait for league glory. The last time the Gunners claimed the league title was in the 2003-04 season with their legendary Invincibles team.