Gabriel Martinelli opens up about his future at Arsenal

Gabriel Martinelli has underlined his desire to stay at Arsenal and sign a new contract.

The Brazilian forward has been one of Arsenal’s top attacking players this season and has scored five goals and made two assists in 12 Premier League games to help the north Londoners top the Premier League table after 12 games.

Martinelli’s future has been a source of discussion over the last few weeks, with his current contract at The Emirates set to expire in the summer of 2024 – but with Arsenal having the option to extend it by a further two years until 2026, according to The Athletic.

With the 21-year-old having shown his importance to Mikel Arteta’s team this season and having started all 12 of the club’s Premier League games, Arsenal are likely to be keen to reward the forward with a new deal which secures his future.

Now, Martinelli himself has publicly stressed that he wants to stay at the north London club and pen a new deal with the Gunners.

Asked about his future at a news conference on Wednesday before Arsenal’s clash with FC Zurich in the Europa League, Martinelli said: “When I knew that Arsenal wanted to buy me, it was one of the happiest days of my life.

“I’m very happy at Arsenal. I said it many times. This is my club. I love to be here, I love the city, the club, everything about Arsenal. I want to stay. I’m very happy, They just need a pen.

“I really don’t care. I want to stay. I want to score in the next game and do well and help my team win.”

Martinelli is not the only Arsenal player to have seen his future become a talking point in the last few weeks. The Athletic last month reported that Arsenal are in “advanced” negotiations to extend Bukayo Saka’s contract at The Emirates. The England international’s current deal is due to expire in the summer of 2024 and there is no option to extend his contract.

The same article also reported that the Gunners are keen to tie defender William Saliba down to a new contract. The French defender’s current deal expires next summer but Arsenal hold the option to extend it by a further year until 2024.

Elsewhere, Arsenal will switch their focus to preparing for their Premier League clash against Chelsea FC on Sunday afternoon after their final Europa League group game.

The game will kick off at 12pm on Sunday, leaving the Gunners with less than 72 hours to prepare for the London derby clash. But Arsenal boss Arteta has insisted that his side will simply have to deal with having less preparation time than Chelsea FC.

“We know that, and playing in the Europa League we know that this can be an issue, and that’s it,” Arteta said on Wednesday. “It is a very early kick-off which is a little bit unusual when you play on Thursday nights, but it is what we have.”

He added: “It is a challenge [balancing his team selection] but we have been trying to load the players pretty equally over the last five or six weeks, because we have been playing every three days and we have managed to do that.

“You have seen that we haven’t repeated too many blocks of four games for certain individuals and we will try to continue to do that to get everyone as fresh as possible and with enough rhythm heading into the game.”