Garth Crooks has teased about the prospect of Arsenal fielding Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus in a front-two.
The Gunners have been without the Brazilian since club football returned after the World Cup.
Jesus had been the club’s main man in attack before he was injured representing his country at Qatar 2022 and now could be out for at least one more month.
In his absence, Nketiah has stepped up brilliantly and showed the Gunners that they do not need to buy another frontman.
The Englishman is a player that can score in the big games, as he showed recently and now Arsenal will have a dilemma when Jesus returns.
The expectation is that the ex-Manchester City man will return to the team and Nketiah will be back on the bench, but what if both of them can play together?
Crooks believe it will be devastating. He writes on the BBC:
“Jesus was in sparkling form before he got injured at the World Cup but from the day Eddie Nketiah came into the Arsenal team to deputise for Jesus, he has been in blistering goalscoring form.
“His goals-per-game ratio has been off the chart. The striker has scored seven goals in his past seven games and would have added to that tally had it not been for some brilliant goalkeeping by David de Gea on Sunday.
“What Arteta does when Jesus is fit is anyone’s guess but if he were to play 4-4-2 with Jesus and Nketiah up front as a partnership, it’s game over.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Jesus and Nketiah are quality strikers and it is hard to keep one on the bench, but that does not mean they can work together in a two-man attack.
Our current system works and it makes no sense to alter it just to accommodate both strikers.
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Yes, why not . They are both quality .they can play together as top two striker s .
Nope the formation is working, so don’t try and fix it when it is not broken 🤔
Let’s hope that when Gabriel Jesus returns, he’ll be returning to where he has left off in sparkling form for Arsenal.
Arteta has mostly this season been using the 4-3-3 playing formation style for the Gunners to lineup in array in matches in the Epl.
But if peradventure, he does switch to the 4-2-4 diamond head playing formation style for the Gunners to lineup on it. Then, us could see the Gabby/Nkethia partnership strike-force in front of Saka, Partey, Odegaard and Martinelli operating at the center. Meaning Xhaka will be left out of the starting XI? But will Arteta agree?
MA will plainly NOT choose to leave Xhaka out of his first choice, barring injuries and fatigue, of which he seems immune to both.
Exactly… We’ll have to switch to the old 4-4-2 formation
4-4-2 won’t work…. Agree with GoalDan
Nketiah is actually a more natural central striker than Jesus who has invariably operated wide for Man City and Brazil.On his return to full fitness, Jesus could find it difficult to replace Nketiah, particularly if he continues to perform as he has.Of course rotation will kick in and at the end of the day, selection will be based on actual performance and not reputation or perception.With Jesus,ESR and Trossard available Arteta will be faced with some difficult selection problems, but that of course is what competition is all about.
If the coach wants to play 4-42 then that might be the only way to do it with current squad.
But coaches who change formations to accommodate players usually end up with their head on a spike (the Brasil 1970 WC side being a notable exception where they made room for 4 number 10s for their clubs).
Jesus, Nketiah, Martinelli, Saka, ESR, Nelson and now Trossard are capable of playing anywhere at the front 3. Arteta will drill it into them. The players gotta improve themselves into the system not the other way around.
I think playing both at the rare front would cause irreversible damage to all the clubs involved with Arsenal because when you look at the space they would tend to create, the other side of the opponent will start to tremble. I wish I were a manager, I would have to deploy them at once, particularly the returns leg against Arsenal vs Man City at the Etihad stadium.
Go gunners