Everyone connected with Arsenal can attest to the fact that Gabriel Jesus has been a massive upgrade to the strikers we have had at Arsenal in recent seasons. In as much as I don’t believe Jesus will be as prolific from a goalscoring standpoint like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Jesus offers so much more than Aubameyang in terms of his all-round play, bringing his teammates to the game, and scoring some vital goals.
The history books will tell you that Gabriel Jesus has scored only 15 goals in 44 appearances for Arsenal, and if you want to be honest with yourself, these are not really impressive, bearing in mind that he’s the best striker at our disposal, with the likes of Eddie Nketiah no where close in terms of quality, ability and influence, and Folarin Balogun shipped off to AS Monaco for peanuts. However, Arsenal hasn’t really gotten their full money’s worth for Gabriel Jesus of his litany of injuries.
The Brazilian was very instrumental in Arsenal’s title charge at the start of last season, scoring goals and creating assists for his teammates, and as expected, he followed his compatriots to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup, but suffered a nasty knee injury that kept him out for five months. In his lengthy absence, Arsenal had to soldier on with Nketiah and at some point, Leandro Trossard, in the center forward position, and with no disrespect to them, they are no Gabriel Jesus. Jesus’ minutes were managed on his return from that long layoff and he, alongside his teammates, must have been very disappointed to miss out on winning the Premier League, despite being on pole position for 247 days.
At the start of the new campaign, Gabriel Jesus was ruled out when he needed to mitigate a niggling issue on his knee, and Mikel Arteta tried out Kai Havertz and Eddie Nketiah to hold the fort in Jesus’ absence, and he has been working his way to full fitness. His first Premier League goal was a peach of a finish in the 3-1 victory over Manchester United, while his other three goals this season have come in the three group stage games in the Champions League, scoring against PSV Eindhoven, RC Lens and Sevilla.
While the Sevilla game turned out to be a standout game for Jesus, things turned sour when he pulled up late in the game for a suspected hamstring injury, which was a cause for concern by his manager,
“We’re really sad because he felt something in his hamstring, and he had to come off and I’m worried about that.”
The player himself was hopeful he was going to be fit for Arsenal’s next match against Sheffield United,
“I felt something. Let’s see. I did some tests with the physio. It looks not that big, but let’s see.
“I will have a scan, maybe tomorrow or the day after. Let’s see how it is, but I am pretty sure it will be nothing.”
In as much as Gabriel Jesus has been a very influential player for Arsenal, his injury problems remain a challenge with the squad, and I am hoping that Arteta takes another huge step in signing a new center forward of better stature, as Arsenal can do better than Nketiah. Brentford’s suspended forward, Ivan Toney, has been on Arsenal’s radar, and prior to his suspension due to betting breaches, he had blasted in 20 Premier League goals and was very prolific for Brentford.
There’s a lot of time between now and January, so we will know what the final decision would be, but Arsenal have a gem in Gabriel Jesus, and we are happy to have him in our ranks.
Sayonara.
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