Martinelli makes history with opening goal

There have been 61 different goalscorers from Brazil in the 30 years of the Premier League, but none had had the honour of scoring the first goal of a season until 2022/23.

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That went to Gabriel Martinelli, who struck on 20 minutes for Arsenal in their 2-0 win at Crystal Palace. 

It was the fifth time that an Arsenal player had got the opening goal of a campaign and its timing was just ahead of the average of 22 minutes for such a goal.

Martinelli is the fourth South American to register the opening goal of a Premier League season.

He follows in the footsteps of Faustino Asprilla (Colombia) for Newcastle United in 1997/98, Carl Cort (Guyana) for Wimbledon in 1999/00 and Luis Suarez (Uruguay) for Liverpool in 2011/12. 

PL season opening goalscorers