Player of the Season: Martinelli finishes third

Gabriel Martinelli has been named in third place in our men’s Player of the Season award.

Our young Brazilian attacker polled plenty of votes from our supporters after finishing joint-top of our goalscoring charts for the season with 15 Premier League strikes to his name, which represents the best goalscoring return of his young career so far. 

In what was a tremendous season for Gabi, he also received a call-up to the Brazil squad for the 2022 World Cup, and was nominated for the Premier League’s Young Player of the Season.

Things began well in August when he netted our first goal of the campaign against Crystal Palace before finding the net again the following week against Leicester City. Three further goals would arrive, with his dynamic performances in our attack leading him to be included in the Selecao squad for Qatar alongside Gabriel Jesus, and he featured in his country’s matches against Serbia, Cameroon and South Korea during their run to the quarter-finals.

He proved vital for his club once the Premier League season restarted, scoring in the Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve wins against West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively, and then embarked on a terrific run of form that saw him score eight times in 12 games between February and April.

As well as his regularity on the scoresheet, he also laid on six assists in all competitions as he finished up with 46 appearances to his name. His 21 goal involvements were the third-highest in the squad.

In the league he scored 15 times - eight with his right foot, four with his left and three with his head. This was despite producing an XG of 9.13 across the campaign, meaning he scored nearly six more goals than he was expected to. Only Harry Kane (8.57 more) and Erling Haaland (7.34) performed better in front of goal.

Watch Gabi's best bits from the season in our video above