Granit Xhaka has compared new youngster Marquinhos to fellow teammate Gabriel Martinelli, claiming that he is ready to play in the first team.
19-year-old Marquinhos joined Arsenal in the summer from Sao Paulo and has featured regularly during the club’s fixtures, although the winger is not expected to be used in anything more than a rotation role this season.
The Gunners already have quite impressive forward options like Bukayo Saka, and the aforementioned Martinelli.
However, Xhaka believes that like Martinelli, fellow Brazilian Marquinhos will be quick to adapt to his new club, having been impressed by the player in training.
‘He reminds me of Gabi Martinelli when he first came, everyone was saying “yeah, he will go to the under-23s first” and stuff like this, but how Gabi adapted at this level was unbelievable, and I have the same feeling with Marquinhos as well,’ the Swiss midfielder told .
‘For his age he is very developed physically, very fast, good left foot. Of course, he needs to adapt to this level first, this country as well, but I see a big future for this guy.’
Arsenal have strengthened well this summer, bringing in the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko as Mikel Arteta’s side look to improve upon last season’s good progress that ultimately ended in disappointment with failure to qualify for the Champions League.
‘In the end we didn’t achieve what we wanted. We had everything in our hands,’ Xhaka added.
‘That’s why we were very, very disappointed of course but it’s over, we can’t change anything, what we can change is the future and the future started in the pre-season, which included those new signings who are doing a very good job already, very good with their team-mates, very open, very humble.
‘They know what they want, and we try to help them and I’m looking forward to start the season.’
Arsenal kick-off the new Premier League season with a trip to Crystal Palace on Friday night.
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