NELLI THE ELEGANT

Kids stuff for Gunners as Gabriel sparks rout

GABRIEL MARTINELLI – remember the name.

The boy from Brazil was a stab in the dark when Arsenal snapped him up for just £6m this summer on the advice of new Technical Director Edu.

At just 18 he is certainly still a work in progress.

But after scoring twice on his first start against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup, he made an even bigger name for himself here.

Martinelli scored two virtuoso goals in three frantic first-half minutes to set Arsenal on the way to an easy victory – their sixth home win in a row in Europe.

And further goals from Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos sunk sorry Standard Liege, who stunk the place out worse than a bowl of mouldy mussels.

But make no mistake.

This was all about Martinelli, who looked for a while like he was out to emulate former Gunner Serge Gnabry’s four-goal haul against Tottenham for Bayern earlier this week.

After the mess the Belgian fans made of King’s Cross station earlier in the day, fireworks were expected at the ground.

They set off so many flares on their way through the station to the match that the underground had to be evacuated and was temporarily shut because of the smoke. But the fireworks at The Emirates all came from rising teenage star Martinelli last night.

First he fired Arsenal in front with a lovely glancing header from a brilliant Kieran Tierney cross.

Then, he showed off some fancy footwork to turn and bury a quickfire second into the far corner to double the home side’s lead just three minutes later.

That made Martinelli – who made his debut for Brazilian side Ituano at just 16 – the youngest player ever to score more than once for Arsenal in a major European game.

Liege were suddenly looking every bit as bewildered as the passengers on this afternoon’s tube trains going through King’s Cross must have done.

But it only got worse for them when Joe Willock made it three, after Reiss Nelson’s shot cannoned back to him off a defender.

That prompted ironic and gleeful cries of, “Are you Tottenham in disguise?” from the cheeky Gunners fans, who were still basking in their local rivals’ 7-2 humiliation by Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

When Liege finally threatened at the end of the first half, Emiliano Martinez did well to keep out a shot from Nicolas Gavory.

Still, after Liverpool went 3-0 up only to cough up three goals to Salzburg earlier in the week, Arsenal knew the job was only half done.

So it was just as well when Ceballos – who sources say Real Madrid are beginning to regret allowing to join Arsenal – made it four from a Martinelli

cross.