Gabriel Jesus has not played for Arsenal since the World Cup after returning from the competition with an injury that required surgical intervention.
The Brazilian was the club’s main attacker before then, but Eddie Nketiah has stepped up well to maintain Arsenal’s Premier League charge.
The young Englishman saw very little football in the first half of the season, but Jesus’ injury has given him a chance to show he has what it takes to deliver some terrific performances.
Now the Brazilian is working hard on his return and there have been debates about if he should bench Nketiah when he is fit, but Frank McAvennie does not think that should happen because Nketiah has earned his place on the team.
The former West Ham man said to Football Insider:
“I do not think they have missed him.
“Nketiah is scoring goals and you can see Arteta was able to bring that out of him.
“Jesus coming back is competition now. Arsenal changed as soon as him and [Oleksandr] Zinchenko came from Man City. Two winners walked into that dressing room and just changed the direction of everyone in there.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Jesus has been a superb signing for us and the Brazilian is one player we can trust to continue delivering fine performances.
However, Nketiah has earned his place in the team and Jesus must be prepared to spend some time on the bench.
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Nah. I suspect the Everton match would’ve been different with Jesus up front instead of Steady Eddie.
GJ is the Arsenal antidote to what Conte’s mob call catenaccio football – lock the (back) gate.
TO SAY WE HAVE NOT MISSED Jesus, is utter TOSH!
Nketiah has done well but we HAVE DEFINITELY missed Jesus and only a fool thinks we have not!
Pundits omg ,yeah ur full of it , ofcourse we have missed him he’s our main striker .
Oh Frank McAvennie know not the gentleman or now pundit, but he has certainly lock a clear understanding of the game.
Jesus roll is paramount to Arsenal creating chances and scoring goals, have notice in the couple of games we fail to score Jesus was not in the team.
Nketiah is a fantastic player no doubt about that but the few matches we dropped points without Jesus is painful knowing how well he can disturb the defence and create chances for goals which is somehow opposite to what Nketiah is doing. Jesus is a complete goal creator and a goal scorer so we need him back as soon as possible. Both of them can be very useful as the season progresses.
There is more to a Center Forward than scoring goals. Despite not scoring in every other game, GJ brings in the attack game which puts pressure on the defense, hence creating goal opportunities for other players. In both the NEWCASTLE and Everton matches, this was lacking and we didn’t score. We miss Jesus.