Mikel Arteta has urged Gabriel Jesus to remain ‘patient’ after the striker’s goal drought continued last night despite Arsenal sealing top spot in their Europa League group....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The summer signing from Manchester City made an electric start to his Gunners career but he hasn’t found the back of the net since the north London derby at the start of October.
The Brazilian had a number of chances to score but could not find that crucial moment. His best chance came early in the second half. The ball fell to him on the left of the goal, one on one with the keeper, and his shot was deflected by Yanick Brecher over the bar for a corner.
An in-form Jesus might have had much more composure to find the net. A chance to score was missed and made worse by blocking what looked a goal-bound point-blank effort from Fabio Vieira in the first half; it was a display which showed a player whose luck is not currently on his side.
The South American frontman made a positive early impression with the Gunners on the back of a summer transfer from Manchester City, with a productive pre-season followed by a run that saw him open the 2022-23 campaign with five efforts in his first nine games.
His end product has dried up since then, with another blank drawn in his last Europa League outing against FC Zurich, but Arteta knows that a four-time Premier League title winner is too good to be stuck in a rut for long.
Despite turning in another excellent individual performance, Jesus’ has now gone eight games without a goal but Arteta is confident they will flow again as long as the 25-year-old remains calm.
Speaking after last night’s game, he said: ‘That’s going to change [his bad luck], he’s getting the situations, he’s getting the chances, he’s contributing to the team an awful lot, he’s helping to win matches, the way he competes for every ball in every single action is incredible.
‘It will come, he needs to be patient, he’s been through that in the past and he needs to learn those lessons and don’t stop doing those other things that he’s doing so well, because that’s going to maintain the level of him and the team.’
