Craig Burley issued an angry rant over people suggesting that Gabriel Jesus needs to ‘fit in’ at Arsenal and Erling Haaland needs to do the same at Manchester City, as he told ESPN.
The former Scotland international stated that it ‘drives me nuts’ and pointed out that such talk is just ‘utter nonsense’, as he made it clear that ‘good players will fit with other good players’.
With Haaland walking through the doors at the Etihad, it was obvious his arrival was going to reduce Jesus’ game time, even though the two are very different players.
His transfer led to Jesus heading for the exit door and re-uniting with Mikel Arteta, as he is now set to lead the line at the Emirates.
Burley added that if the Jesus transfer doesn’t work out, then it’s not the fault of Arteta or the system, but the player himself.
“This sort of ‘fit in’ narrative drives me nuts,” said Burley. “Even going back to Lukaku at Chelsea, ‘well the system’, he scored 15 goals. It didn’t work out because he had his head up his backside. Not about fitting in. It’s not like Chelsea don’t put crosses into the box.
“These players will fit in. Good players will fit in with other good players. It’s not rocket science. The field hasn’t changed size. It’s not 15 players now instead of 11.
“If Arsenal have a bad season, then the chances are that Gabriel Jesus will have a pretty average season. If they are creating chances, then he will get service.
“I mean even Erling Haaland going to Manchester City. All I heard was, ‘well would he fit into that system?’ Oh, for goodness sake! What do you mean ‘will he fit in?’ What utter nonsense!
“If Gabriel Jesus doesn’t cut the mustard at Arsenal, it’s not because of Mikel Arteta, it’s not because he’s not fitted into a system, players make it work.”
JESUS SUITS ARSENAL PERFECTLY
Given Arsenal’s status of playing in the Europa League and missing out on Champions League football, then that closed a few windows as to who they could sign this summer.
Arteta needed that elite striker at the club, but how many are out there? And, from a realistic standpoint, how many could they attract to the club?
It could be argued that Jesus is perhaps the best of the best they could bring to the table and he is a player that suits the club down to the bone.
So, from that perspective, he should lift this Arsenal side that progressed last season, even though it would have felt that they failed massively given how the season ended.
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