Pundit Ian Wright has praised Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus following his impact off the bench against Porto on Tuesday night.
Arsenal are into the quarter-finals of the Champions League but this was a nervy, nervy night at the Emirates Stadium.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Arsenal needed to find a leveller and it came in the first half thanks to Leandro Trossard.
Arsenal couldn’t find the second though and against a Porto team doing anything they could to make life difficult, this became a nerve-shredding evening.
The game went all the way to penalties and Arsenal ran out winners with David Raya saving two Porto penalties to spark wild celebrations on and off the pitch.
Ian Wright hails Gabriel Jesus
This wasn’t vintage Arsenal but they got the job done, showing they can win in different ways.
Fans love the 5-0 and 6-0 wins but grinding out a victory via penalties just shows the growing mentality of this Arsenal side.
Arteta called on his substitutes to try and make an impact with striker Gabriel Jesus one of those to come off the bench.
The Brazilian may have been hoping to start having come back from injury in recent weeks, but he had to be patient.
Jesus came on and caused problems, looking lively in the Arsenal attack before moving out to the left to accommodate Eddie Nketiah.
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has now praised Jesus whilst speaking on Wrighty’s House.
Wright felt that Jesus was ‘very good’ coming off the bench, giving Porto defender Pepe something different to think about.
Wright added that ‘quite liked’ the change to bring Jesus into the attack, praising a sharp cameo display.
“He looked very good,” said Wright. “You know what he was doing? He was kind of getting in amongst Pepe, he was just somebody to have a focal point in there. I quite liked that,” he added.
The hope is that Jesus will now kick on and make a real impact between now and the end of the season, both in the Premier League and the Champions League.
Jesus will need to stay fit in order to do that and we have seen him pick up niggling injuries far too often in an Arsenal shirt.
If he can stay healthy, Jesus could be a real difference-maker between now and the summer.
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