Gabriel Martinelli believes summer Arsenal signing Gabriel Jesus is among the best strikers in the world, with the two forwards thriving in pre-season.

Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli have certainly been enjoying playing together in pre-season with Arsenal.

Jesus topped Arsenal’s pre-season goalscoring charts with seven in five games, whilst Martinelli topped the assist table with four.

Two of those assists were for Jesus, and the pair were also heavily involved in a Nurnberg own goal as the defender desperately tried to prevent a Martinelli cross from reaching Jesus.

With that kind of impact in Arsenal’s friendlies so far, perhaps it’s no surprise that Martinelli is keen to praise his fellow Brazilian international.

“He knows how to win and it’s going to be important for us this season,” Martinelli said.

“For me, he’s one of the best strikers in the world and I’m happy to have him here. I hope I give a lot of assists to him and we go to the national team together and I’m happy for him.

“I think (he can make Arsenal better). Not just scoring goals, but giving us advice and some things like that. When we press, we press together.

“When we defend, we defend together and when we attack, we attack together and that is not just me and him, Bukayo (Saka) as well, and the whole team.”

There’s obviously an extra element of excitement with Martinelli and Jesus from the fact that they both have a good shot at heading to the World Cup later this year.

The better they play together for Arsenal, the more likely Brazil manager Tite is to give them a shot at doing the same for their country on the biggest stage.

That should act as motivation for the pair, which is good news for everyone involved. Now they need to translate their pre-season form into competitive goals and assists.