Joleon Lescott has intimated that there is a ‘massive’ gulf in class between Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah at Arsenal.
The Brazil international has been a revelation since joining Mikel Arteta’s side in a £45 million transfer from Manchester City.
With five goals, Jesus has helped Arsenal sit top of the Premier League standings for much of the campaign and they’ll return there if they beat Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium this evening.
Nketiah signed a new £100,000-a-week contract during the summer [The Daily Mail] and was given Thierry Henry’s iconic shirt number, the 14.
But since then, the 23-year-old has only managed 97 minutes of Premier League football spread across eight cameo appearances.
And Lescott claims it’s massively important for Arteta to adequately micro-manage Jesus’s workload to ensure he stays fit, otherwise it could be bad news for the high-flying Gunners.
He told LiveScore: “What does concern me is that if the Gunners were to lose him to injury, the gap in quality between him and what is on the bench is massive, so Mikel Arteta will be keen to manage his striker’s workload.”
Lescott certainly does have a point.
Yes, Nketiah excellently lead the line for Arsenal toward the end of last season and scored some very big goals, including a brace away to Chelsea.
But he was only the North Londoners’ main man over the course of a handful of games.
To do it over a lengthy period of time, should Jesus pick up an injury, is entirely different and he is untested when it comes to that metric.
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