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After 15 goals and five assists in 36 Premier League appearances (34 of them starts) in 2022-23, there is no denying that Gabriel Martinelli’s output and performances in 2023-24 felt a little anti-climactic. Six goals and four assists in this campaign felt meagre and a little unexpected after a truly breakout 2022-23.
There are caveats, of course. On this occasion, injury slightly disrupted Martinelli’s season, of his 35 Premier League appearances this time around, 24 were starts and he played 700 fewer minutes than last season. Parcelled out per 90 minutes his goals dropped from 0.48 to 0.27. His assists actually went up slightly from 0.16 to 0.18 per 90.
Goal contributions reduced from 0.65 to 0.55 per 90 which, in fairness, is not a seismic drop. But at the age of 22, many would have anticipated that he at least equal his 2022-23 output. So why didn’t he? Well, like I said, I think a couple of niggling injuries, one in the autumn and one in the spring, did not help his rhythm.
He lost his place in the team after picking up a gashed foot against Sheffield United in early March but that, in my view, was more to do with Trossard’s frankly incredibly return of end-product. Trossard scored seven goals from an XG of 3.1 in the wake of that Sheffield United match (which is all the more impressive given that he missed a 0.5 XG chance against Aston Villa at home in April).
Trossard was Arsenal’s joint top scorer with Kai Havertz in terms of non-penalty goals this season and it was the Belgian’s form, more than the Brazilian’s lack of form, that kept Martinelli out of the team. Martinelli’s underlying numbers do him some favours, in terms of his proximity to end-product, but suggest his execution was off.
His XG per 90 was 0.30 this season compared to 0.29 in 2022-23 and his expected assists were 0.27 per 90 this season compared to 0.29 in 2022-23. So his expected goal contributions per 90 only fell from 0.59 per 90 to 0.58. It could be that Trossard…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/06/gabi-role-martinellis-stuttering-season/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2024-06-06 12:12:13
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