Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol has claimed that the pressure that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta puts on his latest signing Gabriel Jesus may “hold him back”, after the Gunners boss praised his £45million man for scoring twice in his pre-season debut. The Brazilian bagged two goals in Arsenal’s friendly 5-3 win over Nurnberg on Friday.
Arteta was stuffed with compliments for the person expected to guide the Gunners’ line next season. “He’s all energy,” the Spanish boss said. “You see his enthusiasm, he’s at all times smiling, he’s at all times talking to his teammates and other than that I believe he brings a unique level of desire and commitment and enthusiasm, so I believe it’s really good.
“That’s why we brought him here., to place the ball behind the web. And clearly for his confidence and for him to consider in what we’re doing I believe it’s really necessary and he’s settled rather well.”
Despite Arteta gushing over his latest striker, Nicol believes that Jesus struggled with the pressure to attain goals at Manchester City and Arteta could also be holding him back along with his comments. “The worrying thing can be, you discuss being a superstar at Arsenal,” Nicol told ESPN. “I inform you what, what a chance to go to Man City and be a superstar and rating a number of goals with the possibilities that they make, and he couldn’t do this.
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“The thing about Gabriel Jesus is that he’s a extremely hard employee,” Morgan told talkSPORT. “He’s a classic Pep Guardiola protege within the sense that he really puts a shift in, he’s very quick, it looks like he desires to play down the center as an old-fashioned number nine.
“It jogs my memory a little bit of when Thierry Henry’s first game for us was as a winger. We put him down the center and bang, the remainder is history.
“I’m not saying he’ll be the following Thierry Henry, but he’s the precise age, has the precise experience, he’s a winner and he’s won big things. He scored 19 goals in 50-odd games for Brazil, so it is a proper international footballer.”
