Martins gunning for Arsenal

By Paolo Menicucci in Milan

Obafemi Martins was the star of the show when Internazionale FC defeated Arsenal FC 3-0 at Highbury in their opening game in this season's UEFA Champions League.

Magic night
It was a magic night for the 19-year-old Nigerian forward. With Christian Vieri and Alvaro Recoba injured, Héctor Cúper fielded him alongside Julio Cruz and it was his header that set up the Argentinian for Inter's first goal. After Andy van der Meyde had doubled the lead, Martins received a short pass from Emre Belözoglu and had the strength to hold off Sol Campbell before sliding the third goal past Jens Lehmann.

'An important game'
"I was very happy after that match because we had won an important game, I had scored a good goal and played well. It was definitely a nice match," said Martins, as he spoke to uefa.com at Appiano Gentile, Inter's training camp, 24 hours before the sides' return meeting in Milan.

Aim to qualify
"However, tomorrow it will be a different kind of match to the one we played at Highbury. Arsenal will come to San Siro to win the game but we will also try our very best to make sure we win and qualify for the next stage."

New man
Much has changed at Inter since that night in London, although then as now they sit top of Group B and Arsenal bottom. Alberto Zaccheroni has replaced Cúper and the 3-4-3 formation favoured by the new coach initially seemed ill-suited to Martins, who is at his best when paired with a powerful front man like Vieri or Cruz, rather than wide on the left as requested by Zaccheroni.

No complaints
He insisted, however, that he was happy whatever the permutations. "I've played with Recoba, Vieri, Cruz and [Mohamed] Kallon and they are all great attackers. Just to play together with them is great for me. Actually not much has changed for us [under Zaccheroni], we are just playing to win games as we were doing before. We have nothing to do with the decision to change coaches. The only important thing is that we play well and win."

'Oba Oba'
Last Saturday, Martins played from the start against Reggina Calcio and scored his first goal since Zaccheroni's arrival with a fine solo effort. With Recoba missing through injury, Martins - or 'Oba Oba' as the Inter faithful know him - could start again tonight.

Somersault celebrations
And a repeat of his goal at Highbury would see another of those famous somersault celebrations. "I started to celebrate goals like that when I was in Nigeria," said Martins, who came to Italy to join Reggiana AC in 2000 before moving to Milan the following year.

'Fans love it'
"A friend of mine gave me the idea, he said the fans would love it. And when I did the 'capriola' for the first time all the supporters went crazy and started shouting. Since then I continued celebrating goals like that. It's nice." Whether Arsène Wenger enjoyed it is debatable but Inter fans are unlikely to disagree.