They did it, they actually went out there and did the damn thing. Fabrizio Romano tweeted on June 26th, 2022 that an agreement has taken place between Manchester City and Arsenal for the services of Gabriel Jesus for a fee £45m.
Despite my initial concerns with Gabriel Jesus actually coming to Arsenal as stated in the previous post below about Gabi Jesus in April 2022, I feel like the driving reasons how they were able to lure the star Brazilian striker was:
- Higher wages/ London lifestyle – at the end of the day, I am sure the man is getting compensated way higher compared to what he was earning at Manchester.
- The star man – This transfer fully establishes our attack being centered around Gabriel Jesus which would attract anybody if they are the focal point of a soccer team. With that establishment comes a massive amount of pressure and it is Arteta’s and Gabriel Jesus’ job to make sure that faith is fully paid back on the pitch.
- Haaland’s arrival to City: I am sure Pep’s conversation with Gabi and his team sort of went like “Have you seen what this Erling Haaland guy looks like? Let’s make this easy on both parties and get this transfer to Arsenal sorted. We get £45m and you get to play at a joke club.” (So bascially City used us to get the better, younger player while our transfer fee substantially pays for that said better, younger player. Gotta respect it.)
GABRIEL JESUS’ QUALITIES: 95 goals/46 assists in 236 appearances were his numbers which doesn’t seem great at first look but is a very decent output if you look at the way he was utilized since he arrived at City. He was very much in the periphery at City, either sparingly through the middle behind Aguero or out wide. As someone who was supposed to replace Aguero as the City CF, he was unable to do so as the Argentinian refused to give his spot up and strengthened his grip on the starting role leaving Gabi Jesus as the odd man out of a crowded attacking line. So with Edu and Arteta placing a lot of faith in Gabriel Jesus being the star in this transfer window, what does this guy actually do?
- Combining with teammates: Whenever I watched Gabi Jesus star for City, what stands out is his ability to combine and interchange with his teammates. His quick feet and comfort with his back toward the goal make it to where his teammates can only excel if they are able to connect with Gabi when attacking. Arteta looks to prefer the non-prototypical striker that can receive the ball deep to connect with teammates instead of the Lukaku, Ibrahimovic, Osimhen brand of striker. If I had it my way, we would go with a Tammy Abraham or Victor Osimhen to lead our line, just a behemoth up top that we can feed the ball into and know that he is going to get this foot/body on the ball, but if we are going to go with a striker who can connect play with this teammates, it doesn’t get better than GJ in my opinion (outside of Benzema of course).
There is a reason why it seemed at times that Arteta preferred to have Lacazette play centrally for Arsenal with Aubameyang out wide even though Auabemyang goal output was way higher than Laca’s. The reason for this being that Lacazette provides more of a technical outlet through our center forward than Aubamyeng. Arteta emphasizes that he wants his CF to be able to combine and interchange with his wide forwards and attacking midfielders through one-touch and quick passes. GJ provides that ten-fold compared to Lacazette which is how I envision Arteta seeing GJ fitting in with our team.
2. Quick feet in the box: All I ask from my CF is that they can create goals on their own. Obviously, it is imperative as a striker/center forward to get the proper service but if you are the star man, there are times when you need to make things happen on your own. Gabriel Jesus had times where his brilliance in the box created goals for City and that is what Arsenal lacked massively with our CFs last season. Especially not having a winger(s) with high goal output like an Alexis Sanchez as well as a particularly young and inexperienced group of attackers, a lot of the onus will be on GJ to get the goals himself.
In both these goals, you can just see the quality and technical ability that GJ possesses with defenders hovering over him which translates to any team, any league in the world.
3. Relentless pressure and desire to win the ball back: the staple of any Pep team is the ability and desire to win the ball back once you lose it. As a fan, all I ask is my team possesses that attitude. I don’t care if you lose the ball when you try to attack, no team is perfect when trying to attack, but what you can control is your desire to win the ball back and Gabi Jesus has that in abundance when compared to Laca and Auba. Gabi Jesus basically won City their tie against Real Madrid in the 2020-2021 Champions League by pressuring Varane to give City two goals as shown below:
With someone that is obsessed with pressing, it is no surprise that he wanted Gabi Jesus and the same can be said for Arteta. I love Lacazette but watching him press or do anything that required athleticism was absolutely cringe and unwatchable. Gabi provides that athleticism that we saw glimpses from Eddie in bits and pieces last season but with Gabi we can expect a more refined pressing output.
WEAKNESSES/SHORTCOMINGS:
- 2o goals or bust: The obvious concern with this signing is that Gabi has failed to score 20 goals in the league which is something that fairly or unfairly, will be the benchmark that Gabi will be held to as the Arsenal striker. There will be endless comparisons for Gabi Jesus compared to Harry Kane, Ronaldo, Salah, Havertz, Haaland etc. and the only way he can do that is to produce goals. And from what it looks like, he will have to produce goals at a pace and level he never has reached in the Premier League as shown below:
You can make the argument that he wasn’t utilized to his absolute strength at City as Pep deployed him many times as a wide forward, where Gabi is more than capable of doing a job, but not like when he is playing centrally.
2. The drop in quality with his new teammates: Not sure if it will be in the first training session or the first game, but there absolutely will be a time when Gabi Jesus will have to come to the realization that he is no longer playing and combining with Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne. He is now going to be combining with the likes of Granit Xhaka and Emile Smith Rowe, and will need to not want to kill himself when they can’t comprehend or connect with him on the pitch. You can make the argument that Gabi was successful at City due to his environment at City. The drop in quality to Arsenal is obvious and massive but that is why we paid a shit ton to get him. Time for him to be the star man, time for him to put up or shut up.
3. Things never work out at Arsenal: the biggest hindrance to this transfer not working out. Gabriel Jesus can score 25+ goals a season and something always seem to not work out for us. Aubameyang damn near did that for 3 seasons and we finished 8th twice. Arteta and Edu are working to get in transfers to fill out the the rest of the squad to the level where we want the club to be, but at the end of the day, Arsenal are going to Arsenal. And I will also probably want to be eliminated from this Earth because of it.
CONCLUSION: If I had it my way, we would have gone after a Victor Osimhen or Tammy Abraham type of striker. A more prototypical striker that will physically put pressure on other team’s CBs but also has the technical quality to be an outlet for a young Arsenal team going forward. Gabi Jesus doesn’t have that physical presence, but it is clear that Arteta preferred Gabi Jesus to many other strikers in Europe. It is a make or break signing for many involved with heads surely to roll if this transfer window doesn’t produce like it should. If they get us back into Champions League, their work will be vindicated, if they don’t, Arteta and Edu have to be fired. Surely it is a huge huge signing but also comes with massive amount of pressure. We will see if Gabi, Arteta and Edu are up for it. (there’s no chance this works out)
Featured image credits: AP
Video Credits: Emirates FA CUP, NBC, CBS
Image credits: transfermarkt