Arsenal have come a very long way over the last few years, from midtable mediocrity to successive title races.
Mikel Arteta has turned the Gunners into a serious proposition in the Premier League, and one of the players who's been with him since the start is Gabriel Martinelli.
The young Brazilian – he's still only 22 – joined the club for £6m in 2019 and is one of the most talented players in the squad.
However, he didn't have the best of campaigns by his own lofty standards last season, and based on reports, the club seem to be interested in another young winger who has lit up the Euros this week and won comparisons to the Arsenal man.
Arsenal transfer news
According to a report from The Athletic earlier this month, Arsenal are interested in Athletic Bilbao's exciting young winger, Nico Williams.
Alongside the Gunners, the report claims that Chelsea, Newcastle United and Barcelona are keen to land the Spaniards' services this summer.
While the competition is far from ideal, the good news is that according to The Athletic, the 21-year-old has a €55m – £47m – release clause inserted into his current contract, which should simplify that part of any possible transfer.
Overall, it could be complicated to get over the line, but given his stellar campaign last season, impressive form at the Euros, and comparisons to Martinelli, Williams seems like a player well worth signing.
How Williams compares to Martinelli
So, where do these comparisons between Williams and Martinelli come from then? Well, the first comes from FBref, which looks at every player in Europe's top five leagues and creates a list of the ten most similar players in their position, and in the case of the Bilbao man, they place the Arsenal ace as the seventh most similar winger in the top five competitions.
Non-Penalty Expected Goals + Assists
0.46
0.58
Non-Penalty Goals
0.20
0.27
Progressive Carries
5.70
5.67
Progressive Passes
2.63
2.90
Shots on Target
0.76
0.89
Goals per Shot
0.09
0.10
Tackles
1.24
1.34
The best way to see this is by looking at the pair's underlying numbers, such as their non-penalty expected goal and assists figure, their actual non-peanlty goals, progressive passes and carries, shots on target, goals per shot and the naumber of atckles they make, all per 90.
However, it goes beyond just their statistics as well.
For example, after watching the Spaniard, whom talent scout Jacek Kulig claimed is "on another level", run Italy ragged on Thursday night – for which he won the Player of the Match award – the Daily Telegraph's Sam Dean claimed that his "willingness to run at defenders" reminded him of what Martinelli can do at his very best.
This explosiveness out wide, which he shares with the Brazilian, is one of the main reasons he's such a fantastic addition to the Gunners' attacking corps.
Despite the buzz around his name at the moment and the incredible return of eight goals and 17 assists he racked up in 37 games last season, data analyst Ben Mattinson claims the Pamplona-born gem still possesses bags of "untapped potential" and that as "one of the best wingers on the market."
Ultimately, this combination of his incredible form at club and international level and his similarities to Martinelli should be more than enough to convince Edu Gaspar and Co that Williams would be a spectacular signing this summer.
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