Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus ended his poor run of form with a superb hat-trick against Crystal Palace to fire Mikel Arteta’s men into the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Wednesday
Gabriel Jesus told Martin Odegaard that he would score against Crystal Palace – if the Arsenal captain kept putting balls in behind.
The former Manchester City forward, 27, plundered a superb second half hat-trick to fire the Gunners into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup at Palace’s expense, even though the Eagles had led early courtesy of Jean-Phillipe Mateta.
Jesus has yet to score in the Premier League this season but his treble could be the catalyst for an upturn in form. And he revealed post-match that he was certain the goals would come if Odegaard and Bukayo Saka kept doing what they were doing on the night.
He explained post-match: “Obviously the first half wasn’t our best, but still in the second half we did our job, we created more, we kept the ball more, circulated the ball, made passes and then Martin put in two amazing balls in the end and B [Bukayo Saka] as well, and I could finish the action.
“The quality that Martin has is amazing. He’s a type of a player that can pass these balls and put you in front of the goal.
“That’s what I was telling him; I said ‘Martin I know your qualities, so I’ll go in behind. If it’s open, I go, you don’t need to look, I will be there.’ He played amazing balls and I was able to finish the action.
“B as well, but I think everyone today tried their best, it’s not easy when you change a lot, normally we don’t play together a lot in the games, and that’s a little bit tricky. At the end we did our job and won the game.”
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Jesus has come under pressure from portions of the Arsenal fanbase over his dearth of goals this season. Some fans even want to see Mikel Arteta and the club splash out on a new striker in January; a move which would likely impact Jesus’ game time.
He was singled out for praise after the match by Arteta, though, indicating that the Gunners boss has not yet given up on the Brazilian plundering the goals Arsenal need to chase Liverpool down at the Premier League summit.
The Spaniard said of Jesus: “I’m so pleased for him. It’s been a long period for him without goals and today, to score three goals, he looked very sharp. I think it’s a great thing for him and the team that we can rely on a player of such quality.
“He brings something. He has a quality, a way of creating and innovating situations that is quite unique. So Gabi at that level is a big asset for us.
“It’s now about consistency. Now this is a moment of spark that will bring so much confidence, not only to him, but to the team as well that we can rely on him to change games. Now we need to take it and give him more games and chances.”
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