In rather surprising news, the word on the street, or according to the Athletic, is that Arsenal are open to selling Gabriel Jesus this summer, if the right offer comes.
These reports are probably surfacing due to the emergence of Kai Havertz as the de-facto center forward at Arsenal, keeping Jesus out of the side. The popular belief is that Arsenal needs a predatory center forward, akin to the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that scored goals for fun, but Arsenal actually had an Aubameyang and shipped him out in rather unceremonious circumstances after he scored 92 goals in 163 games for the club.
Gabriel Jesus, who was signed to replace Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, has 19 goals in 66 games for Arsenal, which in all honesty, aren’t encouraging numbers from a center forward in a big club like Arsenal. Havertz, who is a midfielder currently deployed as a forward has scored 13 goals in 48 games for the club. He’s closing in on Jesus scoring record despite featuring for a lot games less.
Gabriel Jesus arrived with huge fanfare when he arrived from Manchester City last season and every honest Arsenal fan will tell you that revitalized and galvanized the attack with his work rate, silky movement, precision passing, hold up and to a certain degree, goals. His numbers were not on the prolific mould, but Jesus was certainly the alpha dog in the Arsenal attack and rightly earned a place in the Brazil squad for the Qatar World Cup.
He suffered a knee injury that required him to go under the knife and after five long grueling months, he returned to action, scoring five goals in the last 12 Premier League games, taking his total tally for the campaign to 11 goals in 33 appearances. Bearing in mind that such a lengthy layoff affected his playing time in on the pitch, we had high hopes for the Jesus in the new campaign.
Unfortunately, he suffered another niggling knee issue and had to get a minor surgery which saw him miss the early part of the season, came back, played a couple of games and suffered a hamstring injury against Sevilla. His start and stop appearances due to his fitness hasn’t helped this season and in 33 games this season, Jesus has scored four goals in 24 Premier League games and four goals in eight Champions League games. These are truly disastrous numbers from your supposed best center forward.
Jesus’ injury was a blessing in disguise for Havertz, who has been like water in a duck’s back playing as a center forward. The languid German schemer has had some experience as a center forward from his Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea days, and unlike Jesus that has been quite atrocious with his finishing, Havertz has had a better conversion ratio.
In addition to playing as a center forward, Jesus is equally adept on the wings, featuring on the right wing when Bukayo Saka wasn’t fit to play Manchester City at home, as well as deputizing for Gabriel Martinelli on the left in some games. He’s also an influential figure in the dressing room, being one of the vice captains after Martin Odegaard, so I’d rather keep him around as a squad player if it’s up to me.
I also believe that Arsenal has bigger fish to fry when it comes to potential player sales, with players like Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nuno Tavares, Kieran Tierney as well as the homegrown contingent, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Aaron Ramsdale available for the chopping block.
There can certainly be a right offer for a quality and experienced player like Jesus, so we will need to keep our fingers crossed and see how things progress.
Sayonara.
The post Is Arsenal Moving On from Gabriel Jesus? appeared first on Gooner Daily.
