Gabriel Martinelli, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and William Saliba will play for the Arsenal u21s against AFC Wimbledon in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday evening.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos at the Emirates Stadium with the Arsenal u23s (Photo via Arsenal Academy on Twitter)
Sokratis Papastathopoulos at the Emirates Stadium with the Arsenal u23s (Photo via Arsenal Academy on Twitter)

Football.London’s Chris Wheatley reports that Gabriel Martinelli will join Sokratis Papastathopoulos and William Saliba in the Arsenal u21s against AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday. The trio will aim to help the team progress to the EFL Trophy round of 16 with a win.

For Martinelli, this is his first game back after a long-term injury. Arsenal confirmed earlier this month that the player would aim to make his comeback in one of the academy games, and it seems this is the first one for him to do so.

As for Sokratis and Saliba, both are ineligible for the Europa League match on Thursday, so it only makes sense they get a game with the u21s instead. The offer was also open to Mesut Özil, but he chose not to take it up.

It’s certainly exciting to have Martinelli back involved again. The forward has been a big miss in the last few months, particularly after he scored double figures in his first season with the club.

I wouldn’t expect him in first-team games for at least another few weeks, but we’ll see how he does on Tuesday night.

The game will be live on iFollow via AFC Wimbledon’s website and will cost £10 to stream.