Arteta rues Arsenal’s missed chances against Spurs – “we have to be more ruthless”

There’s no questioning Gabriel Jesus’ importance to our attack, but he needs to provide us more than he is doing at the moment.

The ability of the Brazilian international to press opponents, his great positioning, his notable technical ability, his excellent work ethic, and agility to drift and play in different areas of attack that expose opposing defenders make him a key element of our attacking play.However, despite everything he provides, no matter how good it is, his finishing is inconsistent.

After dispossessing James Maddison in Spurs’ box in the first half of the NLD, he failed to score with a clear sight on goal, instead shooting the ball over the bar.

We need him to bury such chances and to be clinical in situations like the one he had in the NLD if we are to win games decisively or even by the narrow margins that goals from half chances do for some teams.

Arteta had a lot to say in his recent news conference for the Brentford Carabao Cup tie, and one of his demands was definitely for Jesus to provide more, which I saw as him pushing for the ex-Manchester City star to improve his sharpness in front of goal.

He said via Arsenal.com, “(Of Wasting chances) You have to be there in the box and make the difference. We talked about, after PSV, that we were exceptional, and three days later we lacked that as well to win the game, but this is football.

“(On Gabriel) He had a big impact in many areas of the pitch on the weekend [against Tottenham], and he was really, really helpful in many moments when we became really dominant through our high press with the moments that he produced.

“It’s true that in the final third, we need to produce more; we have to be more ruthless there, and we all know that, and we have to help the players to improve that.”

We cannot afford to waste any opportunities that we create, given that we aren’t creating as many as we should be according to Premier League official statistics; we’ve missed eight major chances this season.

We have produced numerous chances, but their inability to convert them has caused them to struggle.

Gabriel Jesus (and not just him, but also Nketiah and Saka), must be sharper in front of goal, or else they will be confirming precisely why a super-striker like Ivan Toney must be bought in the winter to come bench them.