Arsenal's long-term aim for Gabriel Martinelli offers insight into transfer plan

Arsenal have no intention of allowing Gabriel Martinelli to leave the club in January, according to the player's father.

Martinelli has struggled for minutes this term, making just four starts in all competitions.

But Mikel Arteta has named him in the matchday squad for every Premier League game and he is still clearly an important part of the Spaniard's project moving forward.

Amid speculation linking Martinelli with a loan move to Corinthians, Joao Martinelli revealed there is "no chance" he will be on the move with Arsenal willing to rebuff any approaches.

"No chance of him going to Corinthians or any other Brazilian club," Joao told Yahoo via Sport Witness. "Since he came back from an injury, he's been playing a lot less than he'd have liked.

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"There have even been some proposals from Europe, but Arsenal have already warned that they'll not release him."

Arteta admits that the Brazilian's lack of playing time is simply down to the fact that he is behind other forwards in the Arsenal pecking order.

"Well because of the amount of players we have in those positions, he had some games that he played," he said last month.

"We have a lot of trust with Gabi and we need to find space for him to grow within the squad.

"If you look at the number of games he's played the injuries have been a big setback for him, we sometimes forget his age and we need to try and help him maintain that balance because you can generate frustration that comes out of, in my opinion, a not very realistic diagnosis and we need time."

And with the majority of Arsenal's squad away on international duty, Martinelli has remained at London Colney with an eye on improving in the role Arteta sees him in long term, centre-forward.

Football.London claim the 20-year-old was deployed as a central striker during a training game, working on holding the ball with his back to goal.

"[Aubameyang and Martinelli] are centre forwards but with the squad balance that we have at the moment, to play in those positions on the left we don't have five players," Arteta explained last year.

That goes against the wishes of the player himself who previously suggested his favourite position was on the left side of a front-three.

But with players like Emile Smith Rowe, Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all able to play in that role, competition is fierce.

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It's a different story leading the line however and options could become even more sparse amid reports Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah could leave the club in the January window.

Should both of those depart, once Aubameyang goes to the African Cup of Nations, Marinelli could be handed the chance to spearhead Arsenal's attack.

The change of position could also point to the fact that Arteta and technical director Edu are willing to wait until the end of the season to truly replace Lacazette with Martinelli offering them the precious commodity of time.