Freddie Ljungberg questions Arsenal fans over treatment of £60m star
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Arsenal fans ‘forget’ how ‘important’ Gabriel Martinelli was at times, says Freddie Ljungberg (Picture: Getty) Freddie Ljungberg has questioned Arsenal fans’ treatment of Gabriel Martinelli, accusing supporters of ‘forgetting’ what the attacker did for the club before his summer exit. Martinelli managed just one goal and four assists in the Premier League as Arsenal finally brought their wait for the title to an end last season, in what was the Brazilian’s seventh year at the Emirates. It was subsequently decided that Arsenal would be open to offers for Martinelli after the 25-year-old was named amongst Mikel Arteta’s substitutes for the club’s last six matches of the campaign in all competitions. Martinelli would go on to complete a move to Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Hilal in a deal worth around £60million, becoming the second first-team winger to depart following Leandro Trossard’s switch to Besiktas a month-and-a-half earlier. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. Christos Tzolis was signed from Club Brugge to help fill the void left by the loss of the two title-winning forwards and the English champions worked right up until the end of the window to find another top-class attacker for Arteta. But the Arsenal head coach was left disappointed as the deadline came and went, and there are some fears they may be a little short of options on the left flank. ‘A Brazilian football player, he works that hard, the age he has and numbers and stuff, that’s not a cheap football player,’ ex-Arsenal winger Ljungberg said of Martinelli on Viaplay. Martinelli left the Gunners to complete a £60m move to Al-Hilal (Picture: AP) The Brazilian was a substitute in Arsenal’s final six matches of last season (Picture: Getty) ‘And they sold him for quite a lot of money so I was a little bit [surprised] when people really wanted him out and fans wanted him out. ‘I was a bit like, “That’s a good player that you just want out”, but that’s what everybody felt that they seemed to be wanting and they got rid of him. They got good money for him. ‘Sometimes the fans forget, maybe, how much he has done for this club, how many important goals he scored during the years.’ {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mikel Arteta speaks before Champions League match against Napoli","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/08\/3761798954835882587\/480x270_MP4_3761798954835882587.mp4","description":"Arsenal's Mikel speaks to the press on Tuesday ahead of their Champions League match against Napoli on Wednesday at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.","duration":"T1M34S","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/08\/22\/111127717-0-image-m-34_1788904072537.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-08T22:46:27+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); Though somewhat miffed by some fans’ perception of Martinelli, Ljungberg can understand why the Gunners decided to bring in Tzolis as a replacement. According to Ljungberg, the Greece international – signed for a fee of £34m – perhaps looks a little more ‘tactically aware’ than the man he succeeded on the left. ‘If you talk about Martinelli, sometimes he did irrational things,’ the Swede – who won tw
