Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber believes that Brazilian teammate Gabriel Martinelli, can rise to the challenge of replacing injured England international Bukayo Saka.
Saka who has been the Gunners most productive attacker this season, faces a long time sidelined with injury after undergoing surgery on a hamstring injury suffered in the first half of the 5-1 victory over Crystal Palace. However, Timber believes the 23-year old Martinelli possesses enough threat as a replacement.
“It’s not the first big challenge this season that we have faced,” Timber said. “As a team we will just try everything to win our games. Of course, it is a bit different to having Bukayo.
But Martinelli has showed already a couple of times that he can play both sides. He is a big threat for every defender and I think he is going to show it.”
Martinelli who is a traditional left winger, had his first piece of action on the right side of the attack in the 1-0 win against Ipswich Town on Friday, but struggled to make any impact in the game with most of the Gunners attacking threat coming from Leandro Trossard on the left wing.
“Everyone knows how important Bukayo is for us, what he did for Arsenal for the last couple of years. Of course we are waiting for him to get back but it’s a nice challenge for the team, for others to step up.”
Mikel Arteta’s side are currently six points behind league leaders Liverpool who have a game in hand and Timber was optimistic about their title chances when questioned if they could close the gap.
“What I heard from the guys is that in the Premier League everything can happen. We just have to focus on ourselves, win our games and from there we will see”, he added.
Martinelli has another chance to impress off the right wing when Arsenal travel to face Brentford on New Year’s Day.
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