Emmanuel Petit has hailed striker Gabriel Jesus and claimed that he has brought ‘something different’ to the colours of Arsenal.
The Highbury legend added that Jesus is a ‘brilliant’ player, but he feels that the club’s summer signing still ‘needs to improve’ in the final third, as he told Premier League Productions (01/10/22 at 11:50 am).
Over the weekend, as Mikel Arteta guided the Gunners to bragging rights in the north London derby over Tottenham, Jesus netted his fifth goal of the campaign.
From the first game of pre-season to the win over Spurs, there hasn’t been a single game in which Jesus has been off-colour, including their defeat at Manchester United last month.
That’s a credit to the player for meeting the high expectations and helping his new team make such a free-scoring and morale-boosting start to the new campaign.
The Gunners have scored 20 goals from their opening eight matches, with only Erling Haaland-inspired Manchester City scoring more, as Petit hailed the man leading the line for Arteta.
“He just came from Manchester City with this winning mentality and alongside Zinchenko,” said Petit. “He brings something different from what we have seen so far during the last few seasons from Arsenal.
“On top of it, he brings his quality in front of the goal. He needs to improve as well. He maybe has chances where he could have scored more goals since the beginning of the season.
“But, so far, I like his movement. I think it’s brilliant. The way he develops the threat to the opposition’s defence with his movement, sometimes it’s very difficult to analyse and protect.
“I like the relationship he also has with the midfield players and Saka as well, for example – he was the missing point up top, for me, with Arsenal. They were desperate to get a proper striker and he is a young guy as well.
“Don’t forget, the World Cup is coming soon, he’s not in the plans actually with Brazil, so he has two months to convince the manager that he has the quality to be part of it.”
MASSIVE UPGRADE ON LACAZETTE
Alexandre Lacazette was an important and popular figure in the dressing room, but his departure opened the door for Jesus to arrive.
It can’t be debated that eight games in, the Brazilian forward is proving to be a massive upgrade on the man who is now leading the line once again at Lyon.
From Jesus’ movement, ability to play in pockets, and how he links up with teammates, his energy and goalscoring threat in the penalty box are far better than what Lacazette brought to the table.
And that might now just prove to be the difference in Champions League football returning to Arsenal at the end of the season.
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