Rio Ferdinand reveals how Mikel Arteta saw shades of Luis Suarez in Gabriel Martinelli

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand recalled when Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta compared Gabriel Martinelli with Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez. Martinelli is currently not in the best of forms and his place in the starting XI is threatened by Leandro Trossard. 

Arteta told Ferdinand that Martinelli reminds him of the former Liverpool forward in the way he makes his runs. 

Meanwhile, the Brazilian forward has scored three goals and has provided two assists in 13 matches of the ongoing Premier League season for the Gunners.

Rio Ferdinand said on his YouTube Channel, “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’.”

On the other hand, Arsenal had to settle for a point after a 1-1 draw against Fulham at the Craven Cottage on Sunday. The team’s manager Mikel Arteta said he was gutted with the result as they deserved to win after dominating the contest.

“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.”

Arsenal will next take on Monaco in the UEFA Champions League at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.