Jurgen Klopp has described Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli as a ‘talent of the century’ after his two goals against Liverpool at Anfield in the Carabao Cup.
Although the 18-year-old was viewed as a signing for the future when he arrived from Brazilian club Ituano over the summer, he has quickly established himself as a huge part of Emery’s plans.
He came off the bench in the opening match of the campaign and has made eight League matchday squads, though it is his performances in the cup competitions that have really caught the eye.
The teenager has seven goals in as many games, netting braces against Standard Liege in the Europa League, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
He looked very impressive once again against Liverpool and Klopp was full of praise for his display, saying the gunners have found themselves a real gem of a player.
Talking about Liverpool’s youngsters, Klopp told Liverpool’s website: ‘Sepp van den Berg as well, he played an incredible game.
‘That’s really difficult to deal with these guys. Martinelli’s pretty much the same age but he’s a talent of the century, he’s an incredible striker, so it’s really difficult.
‘Then you have Mesut Ozil around and Joe Willock right, who scored by the way a really nice one, so a team like Arsenal in a counter-attacking mood – we keep them deep, play around them, we lose the ball and then it’s really difficult.
‘Caoimhin [Kelleher] did incredibly. He conceded five and I don’t know, I think the second one maybe could’ve been different but all the others were really difficult to save. He’s an outstanding talent and it’s wonderful that we could give him the opportunity.’
Although Martinelli’s goalscoring ability have grabbed attention, Unai Emery sees him as more of a wideman than a striker.
‘He prefers to play as a left winger – he also played as a right winger,’ explained the Spaniard. ‘I am using him as a striker because he played in that position in Brazil. Striker is not the best position for him. But the first thing in his mind is to help us.’
