Cedric compares Arsenal team-mate to Man Utd star Ronaldo

Arsenal defender Cedric Soares says Gabriel Martinelli reminds him of his international team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Brazilian’s progress at the Emirates Stadium was hampered in 2020 when he suffered a serious knee injury after joining the Gunners in 2019 from Ituano.

Martinelli has scored 17 ties in 74 appearances for Arsenal and has made his most Premier League appearances (19) in a single season in this campaign.

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The Brazil international has been impressing this term and now Soares has been comparing the 20-year-old to Manchester United striker Ronaldo, who has scored 692 career club goals in 929 appearances.

“Gabi has this aim for goal. He likes to attack the space, like Cristiano,” Cedric told the Evening Standard.

“He likes to score goals, like everyone does. But Gabi has this willingness to fight. Even when he doesn’t play, he keeps working the same way.

“He is an easy young kid to talk with. You talk and you can see he listens to you. He’s talented, but the way he works is fantastic.”

Cedric has covered impressively in the absence of Takehiro Tomiyasu and has vowed to fight for his spot with the Japan international returning to full fitness.

He added: “You need to believe in yourself. I came to Arsenal because of what I did in my career and by doing every week what I aim for. I was fighting for it and then achieved this.

“And now, I need to fight for my spot. This is completely natural and normal. You need to keep working and believing in your skills, knowledge, performance and mentality.

“In a natural way the truth always comes out. As we say in Portugal, it’s like water in olive oil, the truth comes to the top.

“I used to have one of my biggest