Matthew Upson has spoken about Gabriel Jesus’ latest injury setback and says it is not just the goals he scores that Arsenal will miss.
The Brazilian suffered a long-term injury at the World Cup and could be on the sidelines for around three months as Arsenal considers if they should replace him.
Eddie Nketiah is set to step up and become their main striker, but Upson is worried nobody in the squad can deliver what Jesus does.
He said to Talk Sport: “Obviously, the loss of Jesus for a period of time is a massive hammer blow,” he stated.
“I don’t think they’ve got another player who’s as good out of possession as what he is.
“It sounds daft as a centre-forward, but one of his main contributions to that team is how good he is without the ball and he sets off the press and how hard he works.
“That’s going to be a big challenge for Mikel Arteta to fill that void or play a little bit differently with Nketiah, just to be a goal threat, but maybe if he can adopt that kind of style as well, that’ll be interesting.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Jesus is the key man in our attack, and we have designed much of it around his skill set, but the striker will be unavailable, and we must adapt.
We probably need to change our system and play in such a way that Nketiah can score more goals as our target man.
We could also decide not to field him and play in a false nine system. However, the manager is experienced enough to solve this problem, and we expect him to be able to find a solution that works.