At this festive time of year, it’s tempting to say it’s all about Jesus.
Arsenal’s Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus continued the rich vein of form he found with his Carabao Cup hat-trick at home against Crystal Palace in midweek, following up with two more goals against the same opponents in Saturday’s 5-1 away win.
But despite Jesus’ individual brilliance, this was a win in which Arsenal’s attacking players came to the fore as a collective. Their No 9 was joined on the scoresheet by Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and substitute Declan Rice — a sharing of goalscoring responsibility that enabled Arsenal to overcome the first-half departure through injury of their star man, Bukayo Saka.
This was quite an uncharacteristic game for Arsenal. It was a substantially more chaotic match than we are accustomed to seeing from this team — according to Opta, they produced an xG number of 2.88 to Palace’s 1.72 figure. But that chaos may be no bad thing — in fact, it might be what Arsenal’s attack has been missing.
On another occasion, manager Mikel Arteta might have chosen between Jesus and Havertz for one spot in yesterday’s team. With Rice still working his way back to fitness after having to go off with a minor injury last weekend against Everton, however, he opted to start both of them.
With Jesus occupying the central striker position, Havertz dropped into midfield as the left No 8. This changed the balance of the entire team. Playing the German from deep, rather than Rice or Mikel Merino, effectively gave Arsenal an extra attacking player on the pitch.
You could tell.
Arsenal flooded the Palace box at every possible opportunity. It was particularly evident on their third goal seven minutes before half-time: when Martinelli got to the byline and crossed, Jesus and Havertz were both on the edge of the six-yard box. The former headed the ball against the post; the latter prodded in the rebound.
If there was something pleasingly chaotic about last night’s Arsenal attack, Jesus is the embodiment of that quality. “He creates chaos and uncertainty,” Arteta said, shortly after signing him from Manchester City, where they worked together for three years, in 2022. “He is always on your shoulder, he is always there to nick the ball off you, he’s always in front of the goal. He is a real threat and he is what we need. He is the one.”
Jesus had not looked like that player for almost the entirety of 2024 — but his dramatic revival in the past two matches has been spectacular to behold. Before this week, it had taken him 45 appearances to score his previous five Arsenal goals. He now has five in the space of four days, all in about an hour of game time. He might even have had back-to-back hat-tricks yesterday, denied by post and goalkeeper in the build-up to the Havertz and Martinelli (Arsenal’s fourth) goals.
“That’s the beauty of football,” said Arteta. “Things change. Great credit to him, because he’s put so much work and belief into what he does. He was patient and he got rewarded.”
Perhaps as significant as the five goals is the fact he played 175 minutes across the two games against Palace. Arsenal’s attack has looked in need of something different, but the club are realistic about the prospect of finding such a player in the upcoming winter transfer window. A revitalised Jesus may be the closest to a new addition they get.
Perhaps that may depend on how long Arsenal are now without Saka, who hobbled away from Selhurst Park on crutches having been forced off midway through the first half. “He felt something in his hamstring,” said Arteta. “He could not continue. He will have to be assessed. We are pretty worried about that one.”
Arsenal also lost Saka’s fellow England winger Raheem Sterling to an injury in the final training session before this match. Both players will undergo assessments to ascertain the gravity of the situation as thoughts turn to the next fixture at home against Ipswich Town on Friday.
Of course, this more open, chaotic game worked in Palace’s favour too. Arsenal needed David Raya to make a couple of important saves. In his post-match press conference, Arteta admitted starting Havertz and Jesus alongside each other meant sacrificing some defensive stability.
“Especially because they (Palace) were more aggressive than in the first game, which we expected,” he explained. “We didn’t understand well enough which sequences we had to put and which spaces we had to create, so we ended up playing too close to David’s own goal, and against them that’s a really bad game to play.”
With Palace making a bright start to the second half, Arteta attempted to add some defensive stability by bringing on Rice for Havertz just before the hour mark. He said: “We adjusted a few things and when Dec came on I think he gave us more dominance. Still the same threat. But we were much better.”
This game marks five years at the Arsenal helm for Arteta. It’s the only job he has had in senior management and the 42-year-old says he is still learning, still improving.
Perhaps this match shows one area where he is still refining his philosophy: the fine calibration of that delicate balance between offensive threat and defensive security.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
