^ ^ Gabriel Jesus hails surprise Arsenal teammate as club’s ‘best player’

Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus believes that fellow Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli is the ‘best player’ currently in the Gunners’ squad.

Both players have struggled for regular minutes this season under Mikel Arteta, despite Arsenal going deep in all four club competitions.

Jesus worked his way back from a serious knee injury, which kept him sidelined for several months, but has largely still found himself below Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz in the pecking order.

Martinelli, meanwhile, has made 25 Premier League appearances this campaign, but the winger has started just nine matches due to the form of Leandro Trossard.

The 24-year-old has scored six goals in nine Champions League matches this campaign, and Jesus believes that Martinelli’s raw capabilities are beyond those of any of their Arsenal teammates.

When asked who the best player on the Arsenal team is, Jesus told Romario TV:’There are a few, but I think I’ll go with Martinelli. I first saw him, funny enough, during the 2019 Copa America preparation.

‘I think it was 2019, the national team always calls up young players from the youth teams to come and train with us, right? There was a good young left winger. I said, ‘Wow, what a good kid’.

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Gabriel Jesus raved about Gabriel Martinelli’s talents (Picture: Getty)

‘Then at the start of the [first] season here, I saw Martinelli at Arsenal, and I said, ‘Wow, I’ve seen this kid before’, and it was him. So, it was him.

‘I’ve seen him play for Itauno since he was young.

‘Some of the things he does in daily routine, in training, are different. Because normally in the game, it’s about what really decides this, but what you really want to see in a player is in training. The details, the little things.’

Martinelli has struggled for starts under Mikel Arteta this season (Picture: Getty)

Despite those capabilities, Martinelli appears to face an uncertain future at the Emirates beyond this season as the Gunners plot their latest rebuild.

The left side of attack has been namechecked as an area where Arsenal are keen to upgrade, with reports linking the club with an audacious move for Paris Saint-Germain forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

And speaking recently, Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard agreed that Martinelli is one of the players who Arsenal could seek to upgrade on.

‘I think Arsenal will potentially go for a player on the left,’ Gerrard told TNT Sports.

‘I don’t think Gabriel Martinelli has been as good as he was previously maybe and Leandro Trossard is a good player but that is an area they might look at in terms of how to get the team and squad better.’

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^ ^ ‘Mikel Arteta likes him very much’ – Agent confirms Arsenal talks to sign £52m striker

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is an admirer of Christian Kofane, claims the forward’s agent (Picture: Getty)

Christian Kofane’s agent claims he has held transfer talks with Arsenal and Mikel Arteta likes the Bayer Leverkusen striker ‘very much’.

Kofane is enjoying an eye-catching debut season in the Bundesliga after joining Leverkusen from Albacete for a small fee last summer.

Although not yet a nailed-on starter under Kasper Hjulmand, the 19-year-old has made a significant impact at Leverkusen, registering seven goals and eight assists in his first 37 appearances for the club.

Kofane’s name may already be familiar to some Arsenal supporters after he caught the eye in both legs of Leverkusen’s Champions League last-16 elimination at the hands of the Gunners.

The imposing centre-forward more than held his own against Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba and was perhaps unfortunate not to score in the second meeting, with David Raya producing a stunning save to deny him late on at the Emirates.

Earlier on in the competition, Kofane became Leverkusen’s youngest ever Champions League goalscorer with the opening goal in a 1-1 draw at home to PSV Eindhoven.

Leverkusen’s €5million (£4.4m) deal with Albacete for Kofane now appears an extremely savvy piece of business as the teenager goes from strength to strength with every passing game.

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Kofane is enjoying an outstanding debut season with Leverkusen (Picture: Getty)

The teenager caused Gabriel and Saliba problems in the Champions League (Picture: Getty)

A report from Sky Germany this week claimed Arsenal and Real Madrid had both been monitoring Kofane, with Leverkusen tempted to sell should they receive an offer of between €60-70million (£52m-61m).

‘Yes, Arsenal’s interest is genuine,’ Kofane’s agent Eric Depolo told Daily Arsenal in response to the rumours.

‘The manager [Mikel Arteta] likes him very much.’

Asked which other clubs had expressed an interest in Kofane, Depolo replied: ‘Chelsea, Newcastle, Everton, Brentford, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.’

Kofane is also attracting interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona (Picture: Getty)

Depolo suggested the presence of both Arteta and Saliba in north London put Arsenal in ‘pole position’ to strike a deal for the Cameroon international.

‘I think it is too early to say [which club is leading the race],’ he explained.

‘But due to the fact that the player speaks Spanish, like Mikel Arteta, and that William Saliba is originally from Cameroon, I would say Arsenal are in pole position.

‘There is contact between me and Arsenal. But their focus right now is to win the league – from there everything will start moving.’

The youngster won his fourth cap for Cameroon on Tuesday (Picture: Getty)

Kofane’s current contract, which he signed upon arrival at Leverkusen, runs through to the summer 2026.

Leverkusen chiefs Simon Rolfes and Kim Falkenberg are said to be relaxed about the growing interest in Kofane and are believed to be in regular communication with the attacker’s camp.

Kofane’s agent reassured Arsenal they would be getting a ‘complete’ striker for the next decade should they secure a deal for his client.

‘He is a €100m (£87.3m) player. With Kofane, Arsenal will have a top striker for the next ten years,’ Depolo continued.

Hjulmand is confident Kofane has a ‘great future’ in the game (Picture: Getty)

‘I have never had as many calls in my life as now regarding Kofane. Right now, he is the best Under-21 striker in Europe and the most complete one.

‘He has speed, technique, defends very well and is strong in the air. It is very difficult to find all these attributes in one striker.’

Depolo confirmed that Barcelona had also held discussions for the 6 ft 2 in forward.

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Leverkusen head coach Hjulmand has been waxing lyrical about Kofane in the German media, tipping the the youngster for a ‘great future’ due to his ‘personality’ on matchdays and on the training ground.

‘For me, it’s impressive enough that Kofi came to Europe at the end of 2024 and moved here in the summer of 2025 – and how he has developed since then,’ Hjulmand recently said of Kofane.

‘The way he works, how he adapts and learns… I criticised him a bit in training a few weeks ago and then the next day he came to me and said, “Please, keep it up. I want more criticism, I want to learn,” and that’s why he’s making these strides.

‘I always tell players, “Stay true to yourself in this crazy world, sometimes you might lose touch with reality”, but if you stay true to yourself, everything will be alright.’

‘He has a great future.

‘I know Christian will stay on this path, with this personality – and then he will certainly develop even further.’

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^ ^ Steven Gerrard claims ‘heartbreaking’ £30m Liverpool transfer ‘set us back a long time’

Steven Gerrard believes Liverpool took a ‘step back’ when Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid (The Overlap)

Steven Gerrard has described Liverpool’s decision to sell Xabi Alonso as ‘heartbreaking’ and a ‘step back’ for the club.

Alonso had played a key role in Liverpool’s push for the Premier League title in the 2008-09 season where Rafa Benitez’s side finished second, four points behind champions Manchester United.

But after a fall-out with Benitez, Alonso pushed to leave Liverpool in the summer of 2009 and he ended up joining Real Madrid in a £30 million deal.

Gerrard, who flourished in his midfield partnership with Alonso, believes Liverpool became a worse team when they sold the Spaniard.

‘At the time Liverpool weren’t splashing the most money but that was the moment I felt you got the closest to us,’ Gary Neville told Gerrard on The Overlap.

‘I think it was when Alonso left, I felt that was a massive sort of…’

Gerrard interjected: ‘Step back.’

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Steven Gerrard says he was heartbroken by Xabi Alonso’s exit at Liverpool in 2009 (AFP via Getty)

Neville replied: ‘A massive step back, and you brought in the lad from Italy, [Alberto] Aquilani.’

Gerrard said: ‘That was heartbreaking as well. And also the [Fernando] Torres one as well. Because you think to yourself we’ve put so much in to try to close, it felt like we were getting closer and then you take one of those big signings out.

‘It can set you back, it can set you back a long time, especially when you’ve played with them and you think they are the people who can win games for you.

‘He [Alonso] was such a big player for us, how we played, everyone sees him as a good player from the outside but when you’re on the pitch with him, he was top.’

Jamie Carragher said: ‘We’ve both got unbelievable respect for Rafa [Benitez], he took your game, you said, to another level, took mine to a completely different level in terms of being centre-back and Champions League final, I was happy to just be a Liverpool player, playing every week.

‘I always look back at the Alonso one, it goes back 12 months before, it got a bit messy, Alonso wanted to leave at that stage because he wasn’t playing as much. Rafa was trying to bring Gareth Barry in, it was almost going to be a bit of a swap, it doesn’t happen. Then Alonso has a magnificent season, we almost win the league, we get close, it feels like a great team. But I look at Rafa there and it was almost like he wanted to win this fight with Alonso about staying or going. I just thought, you’ve had that fight, you’ve won the fight because the player is playing amazing, just move this team forward, and then it got to the summer and it was like, ‘right, let’s carry on this fight again’.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Real Madrid started coming for Xabi but get him to sign a new contract, or just say he’s not going, we’re that close here.

‘It was almost like a personal thing. Rafa was really good, he always had the fans onside but he almost lost, Alonso had won the battle, I just feel it could’ve been sorted between the two of them.’

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^ ^ Chelsea star left in tears after hair pulled by Arsenal rival

Chelsea’s manager Sonia Bompastor produced a picture of the hair pull by an Arsenal player in a television interview (Picture: BBC)

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor felt her players ‘deserved more respect’ after the Blues hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals were dashed by a 3-2 aggregate loss to Arsenal.

Sjoeke Nusken scored in stoppage time at Stamford Bridge to inspire the hosts to a 1-0 second-leg quarter-final victory which was overshadowed by a late incident that appeared to show Arsenal defender Katie McCabe pulling the ponytail of Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson, who was left in tears.

McCabe later claimed on Instagram that she was ‘genuinely’ reaching for Thompson’s shirt, offering her opponent ‘full respect’, but Bompastor felt the episode deserved a review by the match officials.

‘I just think it’s not good enough,’ said Bompastor, who was visibly outraged on the touchline.

‘At the end I’m the one who gets a red card where I think the Arsenal player should be the one who gets a red card.

‘What is the VAR doing in these games? If we have the VAR, why are we not checking these situations? I don’t understand, and it’s not good enough.’

Bompastor was still raging by the time she gave her TV interview with the BBC, arriving armed with a mobile phone in hand and a clip of the moment McCabe pulled Thompson’s hair asking: ‘Why do we have VAR?’.

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No card was shown to Katie McCabe after she stopped Alyssa Thompson’s run with a hair pull 👀 pic.twitter.com/7JKeHVfXt4

— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) April 1, 2026

She added: ‘I don’t want to speak to them [the officials] because it’s always the same story.

‘Even if I go and speak to them, they will not give me a clear answer. It’s difficult for me because I don’t want to be the only one talking about this situation.

‘Everyone needs to understand that’s the difference between being qualified and not being qualified. It has a big impact on players.’

Sonia Bompastor reacts after being shown a yellow card by referee Frida Mia Klarlund (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea, meanwhile, look unlikely to catch Manchester City in the WSL title chase but remain alive in the FA Cup, and will take on Tottenham in Monday’s quarter-final.

‘The reality is, for a club like Chelsea, (our season) is not good enough,’ admitted Bompastor. ‘I’m not happy about the fact that I can’t help the team more than we did this season.’

Arsenal’s Champions League title defence continues with a semi-final matchup against either Lyon or Wolfsburg, who enter Friday’s decider locked in a goalless aggregate stalemate.

Katie McCabe issued an apology on Instagram (Picture: Instagram)

Boss Renee Slegers, who did not feel the hair pull was deliberate, said: ‘It was an unbelievable performance from the team, because it is a hard scenario.

‘I think it’s special to be a part of this. I really enjoy being with these people every single day and the process that we’re in and the results that we’re getting.

‘I think everyone feels this way about what we’re doing at the moment. We can never get comfortable in this, even though we have to enjoy where we are at, but we have to keep on striving for more and better.’

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