There’s talk about Emile Smith-Rowe having next season as his last shot at proving himself worthy of being a Gunner. Well, other than Smith-Rowe, I believe Gabriel Jesus is also one player who, come next season, must prove whether he has what it takes to lead Arteta’s attack or whether he needs to be replaced.
It is now apparent that Arteta intends to use Kai Havertz as an attacking midfielder. He wants to play him as one of his double 8s. He plays on the left, and Odegaard plays on the right. With those two taking on an attacking midfielder role, Rice will take up the No. 6 role Arsenal’s first-choice midfield set-up may be Rice-Havertz-Odegaard.
The argument about that set-up is whether it will not be as defensive as it should be; it will be an attacking midfield. However, Arteta must be banking on his team dominating possession and scoring goals, hence overpowering opponents.
Such a game will need Jesus, Arsenal’s lead striker, to be alert and in top form to get the goals from the many chances bound to be created from a Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, and Havertz link-up.
This season, there have been murmurs about Jesus not being the striker to fire Arsenal to glory, and Jesus will have to disprove this perception by converting a lot more of his clear chances. Last season, he managed 11 goals in 26 games, but after losing a huge chunk of the season through injury, the concern isn’t about his numbers, it is about the goal drought the Brazilian ends up having.
Before the World Cup, he nearly went ten games without a goal, and towards the end of the season, he also didn’t manage to score regularly. Next season, that must change.
If it doesn’t, Arteta’s priority signing next year could be a move for a super striker.
Darren N
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He needs to grow about a foot put on 4 stone and learn to play as a no9. Then he will be ok. Otherwise put him on the wings.
I agree 100%.
Wingers – Jesus, Saka, Martinelli, Nelson, Marquinhos, Folarin
Playmakers – Odegaard, Trossard, Zinchenko, Fabio, Rosiak, Skelly
Defensive occupiers – Saliba, Mangalese, Kiwior, Trusty, Partey, Rice, White, Tomiyasu, Rekik, Ryan, Brooke
Attacking occupiers – Havertz, Xhaka, Lokonga, Eddie, Emile.
Leave – Jorginho, Elneny, Holding
Good article i dont think Jesus will get enough goals and feel Arsenal need an out and out striker Nketiah is ok and will get around fifteen goals playing a full season but thats not enough for a team chasing the big prizes Balogun still unproven and not ready to be first choice Marinelli playing througjh the middle coupd work but wouldbe missed for his wing play Yes all. In all i think Arsenal need a proven striker Havertz i tjink is, a strange buy and hopefully i will be proved wrong but i think the money spent on him could have been spent bettet elsewhere in strengthening the squad
Nketiah getting 15 goals? Never happen.
He’s a 1 trick pony that needs 4 chances to hit the barn door. Seen enough after 4 years that he’s a championship level player.
FFS hasn’t he had enough chances? Nearly 5 years now, 131 games, let’s face reality and admit he is not the quality we need.
Durand, it is hard to see the evidence that Nketiah even practices shooting or can identify the door on the side of the barn, let alone hit it. Jesus has similar problems with profligacy in front of goal.
Ozziegunner
Jesus has also failed to convince.
I may be in the minority but I’m yet to be convinced Jesus is a better option than Trossard.
We were purring when Trossard started and he was handing out assists.
Even after several games with Jesus return we stilled fizzed out. We looked stale and predictable in attack and Jesus was all over the pitch like a headless chicken.
Jesus will have the same problem Lacazette had with us, in fact any CF will do if Arteta still to only his game plan. Our CF forward spent too much time in the middle and at the back in the opponent box or in your word running around like headless chicken.
I agree with your sentiments.
We have Rice (hopefully) and Havertz to build up play, Zinchenko as inverted LB to help, and Odegaard drop back if necessary.
When CF drops back it allows defenders the benefit of numbers against our wingers, and we need the striker on his front foot looking to get in rather than back in the midfield helping build up play.
Another reason we played well with Trossard, who infrequently dropped as deep as Jesus, which helped position him for assists.
👍👍Adiva and Durand, Lacazette was unfairly criticized at Arsenal, because Arteta’s “system” didn’t suit him. Also agree on the relative effectiveness of Trossard cf Jesus.
Lacazette didn’t score big numbers or impress particularly under Wenger or Emery so a bit odd to blame the Arteta system which I actually think suited him and saw his best performances.
From what I saw he couldn’t keep up with the pace of the league which is why we always saw such brilliant cameos from the bench after a spell out the team followed by a few good games and then a drop off in his time with us.
Not a bad player by any means but Giroud was better and is player who actually didnt get the credit he deserved, Lacazette was supposed to be the “proper” 20 goal a year striker we lacked when he replaced Giroud.
This “headless chicken” approach ended with us scoring the second highest number of goals and second in the league. Arsenal have significant goal threats all across the front line. The likelihood is that Havertz will increase that threat.
Rowe should leave arsenal bcoz there’s no space for his talents , let him look elsewhere to do more and also Nketia and the rest
If he can improve his hold-up play and aerial abilities, he wouldn’t really need to score more goals
The old Ronaldo scored plenty of goals for Man United, yet his inability to press made Man United’s defense suffer
Jesus worked his socks off to press last season, but our midfielders were reluctant to pass the ball to him because he couldn’t keep the ball against huge CBs
I believe we need a new CF who doesn’t get bullied easily
Gai, For now if Arteta isn’t buying a new CF GJesus need to improve his scoring abilities. In my opinion your priority as a 9 is goal scoring holdup play remains an additional quality. You will never be best striker in the world without scoring goals. GJeaus should be ambitious and improve. His stature not an excuse. Playing for national team also require scoring goals as a 9 that’s why Kane remains exceptional for England.
Giroud won World Cup without making a single shot on target, despite being France’s main CF. France wouldn’t have won it without his hold-up play, aerial ability and high-pressing effort
Gai,I bet Giroud played 9 for France in the absence of Benzima France had to other choice. I have been following French football for more than 25years they have always have a top9 goal scorers. A number 9 should score goals. GJesus retun since joining Arsenal wasn’t good enough. SAgueeo despite not tall scored loads of goals when playing for City.
He played at City znd now at Arsenal with some of the best training facilities on the planet. I think it’s safe to say he’s had more than enough time and opportunity to improve his hold up play, not going to happen.
Yes, I think next season will be his last chance to show it
PJ-SA
Jesus is a winger, just hasn’t accepted the point he isn’t a striker.
He was surrounded by fantastic players at City, yet never convinced anyone he was a striker.
Pep played him more on the wings, then sold him to bring In a true striker.
Next year healthy won’t change anything; still won’t score 22 or 23 goals, still won’t holdup play, and still won’t overcome low block defending.
He’s a solid plan B, or depth, but simply not the main striker with resume like his.
Jesus is a very good player to have in the team, his pressing and all round performance as we saw in the Last campaign.
But Arsenal need a striker that offers a little more to lead the line, someone like a towering attack bully, my admiration for Vlohovic is well documented.
I am not convinced by Dusan. he will cost much yet he is not a 20 goal striker we wish for. check his stats, he only score 21 goals one season. the rest are appalling. so much hype
He just needs to play the way he did before the world cup last season – his hold up play was great, and he was a major contributor to our wins. He’s not a natural goalscorer but will get enough goals – that’s secondary, though, because his presence helps others to score and helps us to win games.
If he starts next season as he ended last season(aside from the final game obv), he should be dropped, absolutely.
Absolutely! There’s an obsession on JA with “strikers”, when we have the best goal-scoring force in the PL. Jesus does his stuff very well, and if he can put in a complete season with no layoffs he’ll be among our best forwards.
It’s only when things started to go wrong that people were saying things like “the job of the striker is to score” and “the first job of a left back is to defend” – it seemed like everyone just wanted us to simplify and go back to an old style 4-4-2 or something. Never mind the fact we were only top of the league in the first place because of the complicated tactics with ‘low scoring’ jesus and ‘poor defender’ zinchenko in the team. Arteta should always be willing to drop players when they’re off form, if he realistically can, and that includes those two late last season, but it’s not because either isn’t good enough.
There is much rhetoric that gets posted on this and other fan sites. However, it is not “everyone” that wants us to go back to rigid 4-4-2s etc. There is a vocal minority who keep repeating some of the dogma they have grown up with.
It some of these dinosaurs that insist that Tierney should displace Zinchenko or that we must replace GJ with some kind of giant striker.
I suspect that there are many more people who understand that these are outmoded ways of thinking when it comes to setting up a team or building a squad.
Agreed, David – I said it *seemed* like everyone, with the intention of describing how it felt to me or how it might appear to someone because of how “loud” certain people can be at times
I have no problem with anyone being “loud” / posting strong opinions frequently, just to be clear – they’ve generally been perfectly polite, and with an understandable logic, just not one I agree with currently.
If Jesus gets injured we need a proper player who can step up so I think whether or not we are replacing him we need a new CF! Trossard wasn’t that bad but he doesn’t seem to score much.
to me Torssard is a creator than finisher. he can still try to score like 10 goals
When we started so well last season gaining a gap over City Jesus was instrumental in that. After his injury though he was not the same. If we can get him back to his best creating all kinds of trouble we may well start brightly again, that’ll e the hope
He misses so many sitters. Drop him next season if he continues same
OT: Nelson and Eddie on 100k is crazy! Something’s really wrong with the contracts department.
Mitoma 10k
March 45k
Enciso 10k
Isak 120k
Almiron 42k
Maxima 38k,
Diaz is on 52k,
Gakpo 60k
Olise 47k
Eze 30k
Bowen 60k
Benrahma 55k
Not my money but I honestly think someone’s getting fleeced here.
Nelson is on £40k basic and £20k signing on fee. Eddie is on £80k basic and £20k signing on fee.
Eddie shouldn’t be on that
80-000 for what 5 league goals a season ?
I’ve never rated him highly, but I can see why the club did get him to sign a new contract. If he stays for the length of his contract it will cost £26m, which is a lot cheaper than signing someone else. Also it has allowed us to spend on the players Arteta wants for the upcoming season.
Yeah but if he’s not good enough to realistically fight for a place, are we not just paying him extra to make up the numbers? May as well just let him go and promote whoevers next from the academy. We ended up using trossard up front anyway
Balogun was the next from the academy, and I reckon he will be better, but he needed a good loan. As for Trossard, good player that wasn’t available to join us till January.
Yes, but the argument is we could have bought a replacement or taken a chance with balogun rather than give Nketiah his big contract, given that we effectively replaced Nketiah after a few games after he got his chance, anyway
A replacement whose transfer fee and wages for 5 years would be less than £26m ? I don’t think so. Balogun proved on his loan spell at Middlesbrough that he wasn’t ready last season for the PL. I sincerely hope that his loan last season has made him a better player and that he replaces Eddie this season.
Yes, but it’s a question of quality – if Eddie isn’t good enough, we’re *wasting* 26m on him, rather than spending, I agree probably more, on someone who can do the job to the required standard.
I would do the job for far less than 26m if they were just after a cheaper option – don’t think that would work out very well though!
Ah sorry – in my previous comment, I was saying we effectively replaced him with trossard after a few games anyway. We *did* buy someone who ended up replacing him, so it wasn’t worth it to give him the big contract, unfortunately.
Imagine if we hadn’t have signed Eddie and gone into last season with just Jesus as our CF. No CF once the World Cup had finished as Jesus was out. Ok we signed Trossard in January, but that was down to him having a fallout at Brighton.
We could have signed someone like trossard, if not the man himself, or a more suitable cf in the summer, I’m sure – yes it would likely have cost more than keeping Eddie, but at least they’d have been able to do the job (theoretically). Instead we wasted the money on Eddie to the point that we effectively replaced him in January – so that 26m was not well spent.. And now we’re stuck with a poorer forward we could really struggle to shift due to his high wages.
Signing another CF last summer may well have affected our ability to spend this summer due to FFP.
He’s HG and young in an area where there is a lack of HG. He gets sold for 30 mil min if he goes this summer at that point our extension was genius.
This topping up of wages to include the signing on fee is ridiculous it was never done before and it creates a distortion. Worst still lately they have been adding reported potential bonuses to wages even though they won’t be met most of time. Ridiculous.
Yes, he will he needs to just change his shirt number, he can put on 99, 29, 19 etc. Putting on a cursed number is a big issue for me, i have never forgotten Edwardo, so classy but but ….
right. he should have selected another no. see how the cursed no.9 in Chelsea has cost them expensive strikers. he is so full of himself
Fifa is a Joke
You’re right
Have never trusted Edu since seen on holidays with Sanhelli, Kia Joorabchan and Mendes
Wenger never worked with superagents Kia and Mendes because he never trusted them however, these are people Edu is working with.
It makes Edu to be looked with suspicion
The current player with KJ is Cedric who was part of the Sanhelli era. He had David Luiz and Willian but neither of them are at the club now. Does Mendez represent any Arsenal players?
Jesous is world class and next year will be on fire
World class? Come on
a world class striker should be scoring 20+ goals like Kane. avoid hyping normal players. he is good though
Jesus needs to score 20 goals to win us the title
Else 2nd place
I have my doubts about Jesus. He has a lot of energy and helps with the pressing, which is important in terms of making life easier in the transition for the likes of Saka and Marteneli but I think he needs to raise his game and probably be told, this season, to be more available in the box rather than drifting outside of it so often.
Gabriel Jesus is Arsenals best forward. A season without injuries he scores 20. But Gunners need another player scoring goals, an ugly guy scoring ugly goals. Many goals. Like the Norwegian kid.
Gabriel Jesus was Arsenal’s best player until he was injured in the World Cup. His teammates trusted him and he played together with one of the best attacking units in Europe at that time. His tenacity, direct dribbling and 5’9” tank frame created chaos for every opponent. If only that injury didn’t happen. Who knows.
Sincerely speaking Jesus needs to . He should learn to act as a real number 9, scoring goals would be his first priority. Unless he wants to be dropped in preference for Balogun and Eddie
Why are people saying Jesus was on form before the injury?
Jesus used all is power to start the season hence the form but he dropped form before the worldcup, Arsenal winning matches is why nobody suspect his drop of form. He went 5 or so games without a goal before the worldcup.
Though i won’t sell him but i will have him replace for a good striker.
Imagine the dept if Jesus is our 2nd striker and start ahead of Martinelli or Saka and verse versa.
Still not sell on the Harvertz signing but i’m giving him benefit of doubt because Arteta silenced me on Odegaard and partially Ramsdale. So my doubt is because he hasn’t silence me on White and others. Still never see the improvement on White to worth 50M cos he can still play exactly the same way he’s playing now or even better at Brighton. So noting special. So let hope Harvertz turn around is like Odegaard.