Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus has rediscovered his form, scoring five goals across back-to-back matches against Crystal Palace.

The Gunners faced Crystal Palace twice in one week—first in the Carabao Cup quarterfinals and then in the Premier League. Jesus delivered a stellar performance, netting a hat-trick in Arsenal’s 3-2 cup victory and adding a brace in their dominant 5-1 league win on Saturday.

Previously tipped to leave Arsenal in upcoming transfer windows, Jesus’s impressive resurgence may have solidified his place at the Emirates Stadium. His revitalized performances could give manager Mikel Arteta reason to keep faith in the Brazilian striker.

Speaking about his return to form, Jesus shared: “It is great to be back in the team, playing more. Arsenal is a massive club, and I understand the pressure of being the number nine here. When I play with a smile on my face, everything is different.”

As Arsenal intensifies their bid to re-enter the Premier League title race against top teams like Liverpool and Chelsea, Jesus’s contributions could prove pivotal. The Gunners’ next match is against Ipswich Town on Boxing Day.

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Afrobeats artist Odumodublvck has laid out a clear plan for Arsenal’s path to Premier League glory, identifying four crucial positions that require reinforcement.

As the 2024/25 Premier League season approaches, Arsenal is gearing up to finally claim the title that has eluded them for two consecutive seasons.

In an exclusive interview with ESPN Africa, Odumodublvck shared his expert analysis, pinpointing the signings that can propel Arsenal to the top.

Firstly, Odumodublvck highlights the need for a top-class left back, suggesting Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo as the ideal fit.

Despite the recent signing of Riccardo Calafiori and the presence of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jurrien Timber, the artiste believes Cancelo’s skills would be a significant upgrade.

Secondly, Odumodublvck advocates for the addition of a left winger to support or upgrade Gabriel Martinelli, who has held down the position for four years. His preferred signing is Rafael Leao, whose €175 million release clause expired on July 15.

Thirdly, the Afrobeats star emphasizes the need for a prolific striker, citing Gabriel Jesus‘ fitness issues as a major concern.

While Arsenal has relied on goals from various sources, a consistent, high-scoring striker is essential for a title-winning campaign.

Lastly, Odumodublvck recommends strengthening the center midfield position with a defensive cover, allowing Declan Rice to utilize his box-to-box skills.

He suggests Frenkie De Jong as the ideal signing, despite the team already having Thomas Partey and Jorginho.

Additionally, Odumodublvck has previously praised Declan Rice, naming him England’s most important player ahead of Harry Kane. With these reinforcements, Arsenal may finally have the firepower to claim the Premier League title.

 

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In the recent North London derby stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur, both Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus received criticism for their lacklustre performances. However, top scorer Bukayo Saka ultimately delivered yet again.

Nketiah has scored twice so far this season while normal starter Jesus has only scored once, and Arteta acknowledged that his team hasn’t performed at their best.

“There’s various ways to score goals and we are scoring goals,” he said. “But we should have scored many more with the chances we have created.”

As part of their effort to win the Premier League, Arsenal is reportedly open to getting a new striker. Ivan Toney of Brentford is being pursued by a number of teams, including the Gunners and Chelsea.

This year, Arsenal officials have also kept an eye on Santiago Gimenez of Feyenoord due to his explosive Eredivisie debut.

Arteta, however, did his best to back Jesus and Nketiah and insisted a new signing is not currently under consideration.

“We’re not thinking at all about that,” Arteta continued. “We have really good players up front. It’s true that right now we have some injuries. We will continue with the players we have.”

Asked whether the idea of a traditional striker was disappearing from football, Arteta did namecheck Toney as proof that out-and-out goalscorers still succeed in the modern game.

“It’s coming back,” Arteta exclaimed. “There are a few players, when you look at Harry Kane, [Erling] Halaand, Ivan Toney, [Aleksandar] Mitrovic. You have examples of players who score a lot of goals.”

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Erik ten Hag bemoaned three decisions he felt hurt Manchester United’s chances of beating Arsenal.

On Sunday, United lost 3-1 at the Emirates after dramatic goals from Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus in extra time sealed the triumph.

Alejandro Garnacho scored for the visitors after 87 minutes, but the goal was disallowed for offside, much to the chagrin of ten Hag. The visitors believed they had secured the victory themselves.

Moments earlier, Rasmus Hojlund, a summer signing from United, was brought down in the box by Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes, and the United manager was confident that a penalty should have been given.

Furthermore, ten Hag believed that Rice’s winning goal, which came five minutes into added time, should not have stood because Johnny Evans was fouled as the ball entered the box as he tussled with Gabriel.

Ten Hag lashed out at three crucial decisions that he thought were made against his team in a postgame interview with Sky Sports.

‘I think we played a very good game but I think everything went against us,’ Ten Hag said. ‘With a little more luck we win the game.

‘It is not offside [for Garnacho’s goal]. Wrong angle. It is a penalty on Hojlund. And when we concede a goal, it is a foul on Jonny Evans.

‘It is so clear and obvious. But it was a step forward and I’m happy with the performance.’

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Eddie Nketiah has given a stern message to Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, vowing to step up following the injury to Gabriel Jesus.

The Brazilian striker had to have “a little procedure” after he “had some discomfort in his knee that caused him some issues” during the previous season, which dealt a significant blow to the London club. Jesus was unable to compete in the Emirates Cup final against Monaco and faces “a few weeks” on the sidelines.

Nketiah started against Monaco without the star striker and was given the captain’s armband because Martin Odegaard was put on the bench. He demonstrated his tenacity by tying the score early on, and the Premier League team went on to win 5-4 on penalties.

The 24-year-old promised to maintain his form if given the chance to lead the line after putting up a powerful display.

“Obviously I believe in my abilities, I know I can contribute. The manager has a tough decision, but whenever he calls me, he knows I can deliver,” he stated.

Nketiah called Jesus a “big player” and emphasized how crucial he is to this Arsenal squad.

“We want [Jesus] back as soon as possible. We need him, he’s a big player for us. I don’t think I’m here to fill in for anyone. I’m here to play and contribute to the team,” he stated.

Nketiah will probably be expected to score goals when Arsenal plays Manchester City in the Community Shield on August 6 and then faces Nottingham Forest in the Premier League opener on August 12.

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Gabriel Jesus has stated that a snub by Pep Guardiola for a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that left him ‘mad’ and in tears was the moment he decided he wanted to leave the club, going on to join Arsenal seven months later in a £45m transfer.

In November 2021, PSG travelled to the Etihad Stadium for a group stage match with Jesus anticipating to start after being utilized as the primary striker in practice the day before. Guardiola ultimately decided to use Oleksandr Zinchenko as a false nine, though.

The City manager has developed a reputation for employing seemingly odd tactical decisions in an effort to outwit his rival. Jesus was particularly hurt by that one.

“There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing,” Jesus explained during an appearance on The Denilson Show.

“The day before, he didn’t even use [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker. Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘that day I felt bad for you.’ Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes and goes to the game.

He told us the team, I didn’t even eat. I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother to talk: ‘I want to leave.’ I’m going home, because he put [Zinchenko] on, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”

Jesus also claimed that he didn’t even warm up, but he was quickly called upon after Kylian Mbappe gave PSG the lead just after halftime. Within minutes of entering the game, the Brazilian had assisted Raheem Sterling’s equalizer and then scored the game-winning goal himself.

“I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [against RB Leipzig] , I thought I was going to play, and I didn’t play. There was a lot of that with [Guardiola], and it’s not easy. It’s really hard. That’s when I decided to leave…I didn’t want to stay anymore.”

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Saliba suffered a major back injury during Arsenal’s Europa League loss to Sporting CP back in mid-March, forcing him to miss the last two months of the Premier League season.

The Gunners had a solid five-point lead at the top of the Premier League standings at the time, but after going four games without a victory in April without their star defense, they would go on to finish five points behind Manchester City, the league champion.

Saliba’s injury was one of many to important players Arsenal had to contend with last season; the most prominent was the one Jesus himself sustained during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. After sustaining a knee injury in Qatar during a particularly hectic stretch of the 2022–23 season for the Gunners, the forward missed 15 games of the season.

Speaking on the Denilson Show however, Jesus was keen to state that his injury did not affect Arsenal’s performances as much as Saliba’s did, stating that team struggled to cope without the French international at the back.

“When he [Saliba] plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number [of goals conceded] increases,” Jesus acknowledged.

“When I got injured, Eddie [Nketiah] replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo [Trossard). We kept the pace. But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated. The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats, we concede a lot less with him.”

Arsenal has already made significant summer spending in order to bolster their squade in preparation for the upcoming 2023–24 Premier League season in order to better manage injury issues.

Kai Havertz came from Chelsea for £65 million, and according to reports, deals worth £105 million for Declan Rice and £40 million for Jurrien Timber would be finalized by the end of this week.

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After the 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the title race, Mikel Arteta has urged his team to depend on the talent they displayed in the first half of the match.

Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli both scored for Arsenal throughout the first 30 minutes of play. At the break, Mohamed Salah gave the Gunners a setback with a goal, and Roberto Firmino, a substitute, subsequently equalized in the 87th minute.

To guarantee that they left Anfield with a draw, the Gunners were then left to depend on two incredible stops from goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Arteta revealed that he told his players that they shouldn’t rely on the ‘resilience’ shown late in the game during the closely-fought Premier League title race:

“[We have to] convince them to keep playing like we did in the first 30 minutes. The lesson is not from the second half and the resilience. We don’t want to rely on that, we want to rely on what we did in the first half.”

In addition, Arteta talked about how outstanding his squad was in the opening 30 minutes and acknowledged that the game’s course was altered by a “very poor goal” just before halftime:

“The game was under control but after that we concede a really sloppy goal and the game shifted momentum. We started well in the first few minutes [of the second half] but then lost control. It became a very transitional game, very chaotic.

“Liverpool could score three or four. It is true we could have scored two or three so maybe at the end the score is fair.

“I haven’t seen anyone do it [dominate] in this ground this season. They beat every big team here, they played Real Madrid and could have been four up after 20 minutes. They are going to have moments. You need to deal with them and we did. Our goalkeeper had a big part in that.

“We could taken three points. We should do that [play like the first half] for another 15 minutes and then the game would have taken a very different trajectory. We didn’t. We have to take the point.”

At the top of the Premier League standings, Arsenal is currently six points ahead of Manchester City, who still has a game in hand.

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Mikel Arteta provided updates on Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba’s injuries and explained why Gabriel Jesus was substituted during Arsenal’s defeat against Sporting.

The Brazilian striker began his first game for the Gunners after missing more than four months due to a knee injury sustained at the World Cup.

Yet after Tomiyasu and Saliba were injured early on in Thursday’s Europa League match against Sporting, Jesus was substituted by Arsenal for the third time at halftime, raising concerns that his comeback had been hurried.

However, Arteta revealed after the match that this move was only a precaution, explaining to reporters: “We decided to do that because we had to manage the subs. Thank God we did take him out, especially after the two windows that we had to use in the first half. That was the plan. Leo [Trossard] is coming from an injury as well and we knew the game could go to extra time and we had to manage that. He looked OK.”

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The news for Arteta’s defensive fatalities wasn’t positive. Saliba had to be replaced immediately after Granit Xhaka’s opening goal despite there seeming to be no contact, while Tomiyasu was replaced after only eight minutes after overextending in a rush to thwart a dangerous Sporting attempt.

The Gunners boss didn’t appear hopeful about an immediate return, adding: “Tomiyasu looks pretty serious from his reaction straight and what he said to me, but obviously, it’s very early. Willy [Saliba], I don’t know, he had some discomfort and could not continue so we had to take him out.”

Thursday’s penalty shootout – in which Gabriel Martinelli agonisingly missed the decisive spot-kick – was Arsenal’s 23rd in all competitions (won 14 and lost nine) and just their second at home, after a 9-8 shootout win against Rotherham at Highbury in the League Cup back in October 2003.

The Gunners’ wait for European success continues after a 5-3 shootout defeat that followed a 3-3 overall draw.

But, with Arsenal still in the first place and hosting Crystal Palace in their next game on Sunday, where Patrick Vieira, a former Gunner, will not be in charge due to his dismissal on Friday, Arteta’s team will be able to concentrate on their Premier League achievements.

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Mikel Arteta is anxious to highlight that Arsenal will not “rush” Gabriel Jesus back into action after seeing him sit out three months through injury.

While serving as a World Cup representative for Brazil in 2022, the player unluckily had a knee issue, necessitating surgery.

He hasn’t played a single minute for the Gunners since November 12, although he did return to full training before the Premier League leaders’ 2-2 draw with Sporting in the Europa League’s round of 16.

Jesus was not included in Arsenal’s matchday squad for the outing in Portugal, with Arteta telling football London afterwards on when the 25-year-old striker could be seen again: “We will try not to rush him back. We will try to make a fair assessment between what he needs and when is comfortable and as well giving the team a boost that it’s going to need in the next few weeks for sure.

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Everything is going well, he needs time as well to get himself that confidence and that physical state that is necessary to compete with a free mind and once he’s free to do that, we will throw him in.”

Jesus, who has scored five goals for the Gunners so far in his rookie season, participated in the post-game warm-down following Arsenal’s thrilling 3-2 victory against Bournemouth, which left them five points ahead at the top of the Premier League standings.

Since Eddie Nketiah also sustained an injury recently, Arsenal has been forced to utilize Gabriel Martinelli as a No. 9 and will return to domestic play on Sunday as they travel just a short distance across London to face Fulham.

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Mikel Arteta is still waiting to hear whether Thomas Partey will be ready for Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa on Saturday.

The key Premier League match against Manchester City last week had to be missed due to a back injury for the Ghanaian midfielder, who has emerged as the Gunners’ star.

Arsenal lost that game 3-1, leading to them slipping from the top of the table, and Arteta was unable to speculate on whether Partey will come back into contention for the trip to Villa Park.

Asked for an update on Partey, the Gunners boss said: “We have to assess him today again. He had some discomfort, a little muscle discomfort. We have to assess him this morning and see how he is.”

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Arteta added on England playmaker Emile Smith Rowe and Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus, who have also been nursing knocks of late: “Emile will be training today. If he’s fine he will be in the squad but Gabi is still not there.”

Arsenal head to Villa having gone winless through their last four games in all competitions, but Arteta is not overly concerned at a wobble being hit. He added on his side’s form: “It is normal. Obviously you want to get maximum points and we didn’t in the last three games. We have to look at ourselves. We have to be more efficient in the manner of how we play. In situations we have generated we haven’t had enough points and that’s down to us and we have to improve that because we want to win more games.”

Arsenal is still very much in control of their title bid as they look to win their first Premier League title since the ‘Invincibles’ of 2003–04. The Gunners are only behind City in the standings on goal differential and still have a game in hand on the defending champions.

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Mikel Arteta has revealed that Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus is back training outside as he closes in on his long-awaited return to action.

The Brazilian international’s knee injury sustained while representing his nation in Qatar has prevented him from playing for the Gunners since before the World Cup.

However, he has now returned to Arsenal after a period abroad to speed up his rehabilitation at the club’s training facility, as revealed earlier this week.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game against Brentford in the Premier League, Arteta gave a positive update on the 25-year-old’s fitness. “Gabi is doing really well,” said the Arsenal boss. “He’s already been outside a little bit. It’s still early stages, he keeps pushing everybody every single day. But we need to respect some timelines and some processes. But he’s doing really well.”

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When asked whether he could now put a timeframe on Jesus’ return to action, Arteta added: “Not yet, he’s still too far off that. You have to see now when you put some loads through that key and start to get some movement and some actions that are not as controlled as the ones he has been doing.”

Ahead to Saturday’s game, Arteta provided updates on Emile Smith Rowe (thigh) and Reiss Nelson (hamstring) in addition to talking about Jesus’ recuperation.

“They are closer,” he said. “They started to do some activities and they’ve been outside, but they are not ready yet to be contributing.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Gunners welcome Brentford in an effort to resume their winning ways in the Premier League.

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