It now seems highly likely that Gabriel Jesus, Man City’s Brazilian striker, will be arriving at Arsenal this summer, as reports suggest talks with the player’s agent and club are advanced. Jesus is reportedly keen to rekindle his working partnership with Arteta and will hope for more consistent first team action ahead of the Autumn World Cup, where he has considerable competition for a place in his nation’s squad. Not least perhaps, from Arsenal’s current Samba star, Gabriel Martinelli.
Talks advanced for GJ
I wrote a piece recently for Sun Football, in which I revealed that I am in favour of the move, but the question seems to be, whether one striker addition is enough for Arteta, particularly as one of both of his present centre forwards, Lacazette and Nketiah are out of contract in June. That will undoubtedly depend on talks between the current shirt holder, Eddie Nketiah, who has surprised many with his fabulous form on the club’s surge for Europe.
I am fairly certain that Arsenal and the coaching staff would dearly love to see England U21’s record goal scorer stay, and he will be offered and improved deal, I am sure. However, does Nketiah want to stay as a squad player, if Jesus arrives, does he feel he can hold off the Brazilian, or does he wish to seek a starring role elsewhere?
Stay or go?
If the young Englishman rejects the opportunity to remain at the club, football.london have suggested that Arteta and Edu might look to Canada for inspiration. They London based football site feel that Lille’s Canadian international, Jonathan David, could be the man to finally be the striker to become an heir to Thierry Henry. The article considers £45m a likely fee for the player who has previously said he will leave Lille this year.
The striker has only managed 13 goals in 36 league appearances so is this really a striker who can make a big difference in the more physical Premier League? A quick Sports Interaction review of the facts seem to suggest that pinning hopes on David alone would be a gamble, but perhaps with Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli and Jesus all chipping in, Arteta is looking for goals from multiple sources and not wishing to rely on a solo star striker.
Another big concern for Arsenal fans might be that lack of assists provided by the Canadian, give how well the current attacking players for the Gunners are inter-linking and supporting each other. At this stage I have seen nothing to hint that Jonathan David is anywhere near being mentioned in the same sentence as Henry, but below is a compilation of the player in action this season for you to judge for yourselves….
Passionate fifty-something Arsenal supporter who has been making the journey to N5 regularly since the early 1980s – although his first game was in 1976. Always passionate when talking about The Arsenal, Dave decided to send a guest blog to Gunnersphere in the summer of 2011 and has not stopped writing about the Gunners since.
He set up his own site – 1 Nil Down 2 One Up – in February 2012, which he moved on in 2016 to concentrate on freelance writing and building Gunners Town, which he launched with Paul in 2014.
The objective of GT was to be new and fresh and to give a platform for likeminded passionate Arsenal fans wishing to write about their team. Dave still of course, writes for the site himself and advises the ever-changing writing crew.
No comments yet.