Declan Rice one-word message says it all about Arsenal's feelings towards Gabriel Martinelli

Declan Rice uploaded a picture of the Arsenal players celebrating with Gabriel Martinelli and added a one-word caption which simply said "family".

Martinelli, 24, provided his most significant performance of the campaign so far when he came off the bench in the Gunners' 2-0 away victory over Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League. With the Gunners struggling to break down the LaLiga side, Mikel Arteta turned to the Brazilian, bringing him on for Eberechi Eze.

Within less than a minute, Martinelli sprinted onto a ball over the top of the Athletic defence and put Arsenal into the lead with a sprinting finish. Fifteen minutes later, he danced his way past several challenges on the left-hand side before prodding a pass towards Leandro Trossard, who finished the contest with a deflected strike.

Martinelli has had to fight for his opportunities ever since Eze and Noni Madueke joined Arsenal for a combined £118million. Rice's Instagram post made it clear how highly he is thought of in north London.

The England international re-posted a picture of the Arsenal players hugging Martinelli after his strike and wrote "family" in a simple but powerful post. The squad's love of Martinelli was crystal clear in the ex-West Ham United captain's Instagram story.

It was made even clearer in Arteta's post-match interview, where he offered a glowing appraisal of Martinelli's contributions. Echoing similar sentiments to Rice's social media post, Arteta said: "I adore Gabriel.

"His attitude, his commitment, his positivity, what he's willing to do for the team. As a family, we certainly value all the qualities that he has, and he brings to the team.

"I was sure that Gabby was going to react like that. You raise the level to Gabby and he was going to do that. He has such a mentality. That's the moment that hopefully is going to give him the confidence to go again.

"He's an outstanding player. I looked on the bench, I looked at him, and in his eyes I could see that he was ready, Leo (Trossard) as well.

"They play with that confidence and that connection between them as well, and it's really good. I think that's going to help us a lot for the future.”

Martinelli was also proud of his instant impact, telling the Arsenal media team: "I'm really happy with the result, the goal and the assist as well. To win a game [in Bilbao] is really difficult, and I thought the team did really well, especially in the second half. I'm happy to be [nominated] the Player of the Match as well.

"When I came on, I just tried to get in behind. It was just a minute after I came on, and I wanted to just see where I could find space. I'd said to the guys on the bench that there was a huge space in behind. [Leo] saw me, it was a great ball from him and I just tried to put the ball in the net.

"For the second goal, I just tried to go past my man and look back to find someone in the box, and I knew [Athletic Club] were tired as well. I was able to find Leo, and he did the rest."

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