Mikel Arteta says that Gabriel Jesus is a doubt for Arsenal’s trip to Leeds after the striker missed the trip to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt on Thursday.
The Brazilian was involved in a couple of heavy collisions during the game, and while his absence from the Europa League was precautionary, his participation in the game at Elland Road is not assured.
Speaking ahead of the game, but in the immediate aftermath of the final whistle on Thursday night, Arteta said, “I don’t know, obviously he has some discomfort after the game against Liverpool and that’s why we decided not to bring him, so let’s see how he is tomorrow and Saturday.”
The players will be assessed today having arrived back in London on Friday afternoon, giving the manager barely 24 hours to prepare for what is going to be an intense away game.
Arteta believes his side can cope however, saying, “I think so, but last year it was incredible – even when we were winning 3-0 that crowd is something that I’ve never seen before, and you can sense that.
“Every time I watch them and I’ve seen some games already and you can hear the noise, so we know how it’s going to be.”
If not time for eddie to shine with the propper starting team
COYG
If Jesus starts, I think we can safely say that Mikel’s prematch interviews are about as reliable as a government funded fact checker.
The boss said “let’s see how he is tomorrow and Saturday”. I think Jesus will play or at least make the bench.
Bit of a weird one as he was on the pitch after the Liverpool game and seemed fine. If it’s concussion then maybe that could take a week if it was really bad. But the fact he played on against Liverpool would suggest it wasn’t.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say he starts. And if he doesn’t, I don’t know why but I could see some jiggery-pokery where Martinelli starts through the middle. In terms of his pressing and his harrying, I think Arteta might fancy him at CF.
Then who plays left wing? Vieira?
Don’t see that happening at all. If Jesus is out, Nketiah starts.
Let’s hope it isn’t a concussion. Even minor ones take more than a week to heal. Sometimes a couple months or longer for bad ones.
Judging by the votes, we seem to have a lot of Doctors that browse this site 🙄
This doesn’t surprise me in the least; those utter cunts – no other word for them – were elbowing and kicking him up in the air all afternoon.
Whilst I hope they beat City and the Spuds – for no reason other than to do us a favour – I sincerely hope those plotless Scouse cheats go on to lose every other fucking game this season and give Darwin Nunez, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen something to really cry about. Another Mersey, for all I care.
Let’s hope this is just a minor setback, if at all. Fingers crossed.
Bit of proof reading before posting would’nt go a miss blogs
What’s wrong with it?
Eh? You want a comma before however? You can’t possibly have posted for that.
*Wouldn’t
*Amiss
*proofreading
*blogs.
*Blogs.
, Blogs*
, Blogs.
, Blogs!
Wordsworth 😄
Amazing. You’re complaining about proofing while misspelling words, putting contractions in the wrong place, forgetting punctuation and not forming a complete sentence. It’s either clueless or a joke that went right over my head. I know which way I’m leaning though.
*pwned
Miss Blogs? Is that Andrew’s daughter?
“Would’nt”…?!
Arteta gives nothing away. Fully expect Jesus will start against Leeds.
On a side note, he’s still on four yellows, and obviously we absolutely want him when we play Chelsea in three weeks. So could mean a tactical fifth yellow either tomorrow or next week at Southampton.
I would have him get a yellow in the Southampton game to miss Notts Forest at home
Good strategy, sounds good to me.
Especially as Hasenhüttl has sussed Arsenal out at St Mary’s a few times since he’s been there. Could really need Jesus in that one.
Holloway Road will be busy for the Forest game with all their new signings queuing to get into the stadium.
While I agree with this I also think it’s entirely possible for him to just play his game and if he’s still on 4 bookings for the forest game start Eddie and then we can still bring Jesus on if we need him. Forwards are rarely in situations where they need to make a foul so I can’t see how it hurts us.
The five yellows rule is carried until the 19th Premier League game of the season. We’ve only played 9 so far, so I’d say it’s fairly unlikely he’ll go the next 10 games without a booking. As is his swashbuckling style of play.
So it could be wise to just get it out of the way before Chelsea. Especially as Forest at home is – on paper – one of the ‘easier’ fixtures of the season
Incidentally, Sp*rs away is in 9 games time, Man United is in 10 games time.
Probably reading way too much into this!
Just know … Arteta will have thought about it 😉 Haha keep being curious and thinking insightfully, and offering it to the right people!
Had a heart stop moment reading that headline and then just realised it’s nothing new and Arteta just being his usual vague self 😏
Arteta the kinda guy who plays his cards close to his chest, not reading too much into this fully expect Jesus tomorrow.
Yeah, he’ll be fine.
I have faith in Jesus’ ability to heal.
Best comment.
It will be a miracle if he is fit 😀
This is why we needed that third striker.
Eddie not good enough
Tricky situation because if we signed another striker, Eddie probably would have left on a free transfer.
If he plays, let’s see how he does. In any case, Eddie’s “it” at the moment as we won’t be in the market for a striker, or anyone else, for a few months at least. If Jesus isn’t available, it will give him a chance to shine from the start of a PL game and I hope he grabs it.
He was good enough during the last few games of last season.
In fact, it’s a shame Arteta didn’t pick him when he dropped Auba in January instead of putting his faith in Laca, who produced all the pace and goal threat of a bag of cement.
At least give the kid a fair crack of the whip before judging him.
Well, his contribution to the overall team play (and goals of course) will be missed if he isn’t in the team. We’ll presumably see Eddie starting in that case so good luck to him.
The Leeds game is a “must win” in my opinion as there’s a likely (but not certain) win for City at Liverpool. If City do slip up however it will be a golden opportunity for us to increase the wriggle room over them at the top of the PL. These opportunities will come rarely so we have to take advantage if presented.
It’s certainly a should-win. Every match against the ‘other 14’ is a should-win. Matches between the top 6 can go either way.
Got a feeling City won’t win tomorrow.
Well, we’ll see. If City don’t win (and Liverpool’s thrashing of Rangers in the CL certainly won’t have done their confidence any harm) then anything less than the three points for us against Leeds will be a massive opportunity lost for us which is why I referred to it as a “must win” – although at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean we will of course. The way City are currently playing suggests to me that they won’t drop many points this season, even if they do at Anfield, vs. top 6 or otherwise. When you have obvious… Read more »
You mean if we lose tomorrow it might cost us the title? Seriously?
Rest him tomorrow. We still have enough fire power to beat Leeds. Something tells me we’ll be relying more on muscle than skill to grind them down anyway.
think he will be on the bench, depending how the game goes he will be an option ! hopefully not needed and be fresh for the next big euro game
I read in a book Jesus recovered from worse after just three days.
We can beat the folks at Elland Road. COYG!!!