{"id":689942,"date":"2026-01-12T00:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689942\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T00:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:14:13","slug":"gabriel-martinelli-hat-trick-shows-big-personality-says-mikel-arteta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689942\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Martinelli hat-trick shows ‘big personality’, says Mikel Arteta"},"content":{"rendered":"

From being branded an “idiot” to scoring a hat-trick, Gabriel Martinell’s name has been in the headlines over the past few days.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Arsenal<\/a> winger was heavily criticised<\/a> for trying to push the injured Conor Bradley off the pitch in the closing stages of Arsenal<\/a>‘s 0-0 draw with Liverpool<\/a> on Thursday, something he apologised for on social media.<\/p>\n

But the 24-year-old’s first hat-trick for Arsenal<\/a> – as they came from behind to beat Championship outfit Portsmouth and reach the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday – showed “personality”, according to his boss.<\/p>\n

“It’s part of football and then it’s how you take it,” Mikel Arteta when asked how Martinelli has dealt with being the subject of so much discussion.<\/p>\n

“But he knew inside the reason why he did what he did.”<\/p>\n

Arteta also praised Liverpool<\/a> boss Arne Slot for his considered response to the incident, when he defended the Brazilian.<\/p>\n

“I think Arne Slot spoke brilliantly after the game – speaking of your opponent in the manner that he explained the situation and the fact that Gabi had no intention whatsoever to damage any player,” added Arteta.<\/p>\n

“That’s personality. Come in and talk on the pitch, which is the best part of it.” <\/p>\n

Martinelli has had a mixed season, losing his starting place in the Premier League to Leandro Trossard after a drop in form and confidence.<\/p>\n

He has started just six times for the Gunners, who are six points clear at the top of the table.<\/p>\n

However, the winger has been a key player this season for Arsenal<\/a> in Champions League, scoring five goals in as many appearances. And after his hat-trick against Portsmouth, he is now his side’s top scorer. <\/p>\n

“That’s why to play for a big club, you need a big personality because it can be bad… it can be an action that you miss, it can be something that costs you a game,” Arteta added<\/p>\n

“And three days later, there is a game. So you need to lift yourself up and make it count.<\/p>\n

“I love it. Gabi, in every context that you throw him in, he plays, he doesn’t play. He performs well, not well. Today, he scored three goals.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow, he’s going to train 100 miles an hour, for sure. He’s not going to change that. And that’s Gabi.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From being branded an “idiot” to scoring a hat-trick, Gabriel Martinell’s name has been in the headlines over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-689942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115879245514186487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}