Gabriel Martinelli's Hat-Trick Sparks Al-Hilal Victory

Gabriel Martinelli needed this. Al-Hilal needed this. In Buraidah, on a hot Saudi evening, the Brazilian finally tore the weight off his shoulders with a ruthless hat-trick that announced his arrival in blue.

The new signing, still adjusting after his summer move from Arsenal, walked into the seventh round clash against Al-Taawoun without a goal for his new club and with an eight‑month drought hanging over his club career. Ninety minutes later, he walked out with the match ball and a different story.

A long wait ends in 18 minutes

The first break in the dam came early.

In the 18th minute, Martinelli reacted quickest inside the box, pouncing on a rebound and drilling it home with the kind of conviction Al-Hilal fans had been waiting to see. It was only his third appearance since the move from north London, but already his most important moment in Saudi Arabia.

That finish carried layers of significance. It was his first goal for Al-Hilal. His first club goal in seven months. His first league strike in almost a year.

The numbers tell the tale of the wait. His last goals for Arsenal had come back on 15 February, in a 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Since then, he had found the net just once – for Brazil – in the 2-1 victory over Japan in the round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. At league level, he had not scored since 21 September 2025, in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City in the fifth round of the Premier League.

In Buraidah, all of that finally snapped.

Watkins, Summerville and a statement hat-trick

Once the first went in, the old Martinelli resurfaced.

On 43 minutes, he struck again. English forward Ollie Watkins slid a precise through ball into space, and Martinelli did the rest – bursting clear, eating up the grass, then finishing with the icy calm of a player who suddenly remembered exactly who he is. That made it three for Al-Hilal on the night and two for their new Brazilian star.

The pressure that had been building around his start in Saudi Arabia didn’t just ease. It flipped.

Five minutes after the restart, he completed the hat-trick. Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville drove in a low cross from the flank, and Martinelli timed his run perfectly, sweeping the ball home with minimal fuss. No wild angle. No drama. Just a clean, confident finish from a forward in full flow again.

This was not just his first treble in Al-Hilal colours. It was his first hat-trick in eight months, the last one coming for Arsenal in a 4-1 win over Portsmouth on 11 January in the third round of the FA Cup.

From slow start to sudden spark

The path to this explosion had been cautious rather than spectacular. Martinelli’s debut for Al-Hilal came as a substitute in a 2-0 win over Al-Shabab in the fifth round of the Roshn League, a brief cameo without a goal but a first taste of the league’s rhythm. He then started the 2-0 defeat to Neom, again without finding the net, as questions inevitably began to circle about how quickly he would adapt.

In Buraidah, he answered them with authority.

Three goals, each different in its build-up, each stamped with the same sharp finishing that once lit up the Emirates. For Al-Hilal, it was more than a big win in the seventh round of the Saudi Roshn League. It felt like the night their marquee Brazilian finally stepped into the role they signed him for.

If this is the version of Gabriel Martinelli they now have, the rest of the league has been warned.