Gabriel Jesus is back training with the Arsenal first team nearly a month after undergoing a minor procedure on his knee.
The Brazil international hasn’t featured since leading the line against Barcelona in pre-season after which he complained about discomfort in the same knee he injured at the World Cup in December.
While Mikel Arteta reported the striker would be out “for a few weeks” he made clear that it was “nothing major”. We’re not sure whether Jesus was involved in the full session, but cameras captured him taking part in a series of warm-up exercises.
🚨 Gabriel Jesus is training
Arsenal squad preparing ahead of their weekend match against Fulham 🔴 pic.twitter.com/g7JUWFfJRa
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 24, 2023
Arsenal face Fulham on Saturday and then take on Manchester United on 3rd September before the Interlull kicks in. While it’s likely Eddie Nketiah will continue to deputies this weekend, it’s possible Jesus could return in some capacity against United. We should learn more from Mikel Arteta when he faces the media on Friday afternoon.
Several other players – all of whom are on the fringes of the squad and could leave before the end of the transfer window – did not take part in the full session.
Sky Sports claims Folarin Balogun, Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding, Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga trained as a separate group. They also report that Nicolas Pepe was absent.
🚨 Arsenal players absent from training
❌ Folarin Balogun
❌ Kieran Tierney
❌ Nuno Tavares
❌ Albert Sambi Lokonga
❌ Rob Holding pic.twitter.com/QgoMfqh3iI— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 24, 2023
Okay Gaby, come stronger!
Impregnate the whole of the Emirates!
Ewwww
Thats a lot of Seamen
I mean, we’ve seen the club really push the boat out for this season, so, kinda figures.
Hallelujah
Jesus rises again!
It’s his second coming! (And 4 Hats, you’re not allowed anywhere near this comment!)
Only his second? Vow of celibacy and all I guess…
You have to hand it to him!
Good news we need the players Mikel wants fit and the ones he doesn’t sold,hopefully for decent money.
I’ll never not be sad about Pepe’s arsenal career. He was a really exciting footballer and I hope he goes on to have a decent career elsewhere
I know what you mean. Arteta said he wanted introverted wingers.
Inverted?
Feel for him. He had a great season in Ligue Un and got a dream transfer. Did “okay” first season but his inability to adapt to EPL and modify his game to fit the demands of league, coach, and team crushed that dream. Sure he got and continues to draw a nice salary but you know he really wanted to succeed.
Does this mean Cedric is staying?
Arteta shouldn’t try it, we don’t need him
Apparently, nobody else needs him.
Cedric wasn’t actually in training, but he was in most of the photographs. Hence the confusion.
You know those AI generated images that keep adding fractal-y faces everywhere, in the sky, the trees etc? Well apparently a buggy AI program has been obsessively rendering Cedric’s face in every Arsenal training photo. The developers are currently debating whether to call it NevilleGPT or MidGary
It might have been Cesc, he looks alot like Cedric.
Probably, now Timber is injured. He’s good enough to be 4th choice RB, given that there are at least 5 players to offload in a week before anyone could be brought in.
Jesus will come back but eventually he will get injured again and Nketia will be a good backup. If we sell Balogun we should use that money to either get Watkins from Villa this window or Toni from Brentford in January. They will both guarantee premium league goals.
As opposed to the non-premium league goals that Eddie scores
Eddie is good but his goal ratio is not in the level as Watkins or Toni.
Mostly incorrect. For the last season and a bit, Tony has a slightly higher goals to games average ratio than Eddie with 0.49 vs 0.47. However, Eddie has a significantly higher ratio than Watkins in the same time period. 0.47 vs 0.22. Eddie is also 3 years younger than both Watkins and Toney. Also Toney is banned for 8 months so there’s that whole thing.
PL only data
Semipremium goals
Why would Villa sell Watkins?
The question is why would Watkins want to play for Villa if an Arsenal offer was placed. Also every player has a price. If Jesus get injured again we can’t play Eddie 2 games every week in the Premier League and Champions League. We need another top quality striker if we are serious enough to challenge City and do well in the championship league.
No team need 3 central strikers, 2 players per position is a common practice.
True but neither Jesus nor Eddie are especially prolific scorers. Arsenal need a goal scoring No 9. Throughout his career Watkins is on par with Jesus with goals per game and way ahead of Eddie. This despite playing for much weaker teams.
I’m not sure we’ve even had a prolific goal scorer since Henry. We have had a stream of goal scoring midfielders instead, In the end is it better to get 30 goals from your striker, or 45 goals from 3 midfielders?
Despite the Terminatoresque activities of Harlaand last season, I was surprised to see we only scored 5 goals less in the PL last year, despite missing Jesus for most of the second half of the season.
Its better to have both.
why would we want a disciplinary problem who’s out of shape and lacking match sharpness in january? and why would villa want to sell watkins? this is as ignorant as it gets
I’d rather us wait for Evan Ferguson
Gabriel Jesus returns to training. Just in time to get injured again.
You can keep that kind of talk for yourself!
It’s fairly common to have a minor ‘Afterknock’ following recovery from a major injury.
Maybe this was the afternoon?
I need these men to look at themselves in the mirror and ask the question: what will be my ratings in fifa 24 if I stay at arsenal?
Fantastic news – but we still need a striker.
We’ve been desperate for a 25-to-30 goal a season striker ever since Aubameyang left. Neither Eddie nor Jesus is the answer. But Jesus will create and score his fair share of goals.
But will he stay fit?
I get you fats. I think with Jesus playing regular he can get 17 goals and aid saka martinelli and odegarrd to hit 15 again. Trossard and smith rowe will add more and a few from everyone else and we will be very close again. Half hour Saturday and then start against United please Jesus.
Yeah but City has more goals from other positions than us and still have Haaland and Alvarez. Plus if we switch to parking the bus every game we are two goals (even one) ahead then a fully fit Jesus will only score 10 goals in the season.
True fatso, but only a top, top, top goal scorer would actually improve us. Anything less, then his goals would be at the expense of Gab’s disruption factor and fewer chances for the other front guys.
So unless it’s he’s the perfect fit, better off sticking with who we have.
Finally, someone who gets it.
Arteta has said he wants to be less predictable. No better way on attack than to spread the goals around.
The guys behind him already do enough disruption. We need a man up top who is clinical and putting away the chances Jesus misses.
There’s a reason why Jesus never took Aguero’s spot when he left City
I just read your comment again. Ignore my previous reply to you
I love watching Jesus way more than I did watching Auba. If Jesus can overcome his underperformance in front of goal, we will have one hell of a striker!!
Did we score more goals or fewer last season? Sometimes, Fats, despite your endless negativity, you make sense. But, sometimes, it just seems like you haven’t been watching.
how many goals did the rest of the team score when auba was the focal point? not as many as we scored last year, or even the year before.
Maybe Auba’s inability to combine and cause chaos was the reason his teammates weren’t getting any goals?
Even when he was here, Saka and Martinelli goal numbers shot up after Laca came in for him, so…
No maybes about it.
Neither Eddie nor Jesus is the answer to what, exactly? You got me thinking, so I looked back – the 88 goals scored last season has been surpassed a grand total of 9 times in the last 10 PL seasons (6 by City, 3 by Liverpool). Goal scoring is not the/a problem for this side. For the sake of comparison, the 43 goals conceded has been bettered 46 times in that same span. A strong argument could be made (and has been made) that losing Saliba is what cost us the title. At least as much as anything else, as… Read more »
Losing Saliba was massive, no doubt. But think of all those chances we failed to convert last few games that a top goal scorer would have dealt with and in return would have nullified the loss of Saliba…in my mind, we need a haaland type to win the league. We won’t beat city with just Jesus and Eddie and having to rely instead on spreading it around for the goals.
Yesssssss!!!
Great dribbling skills but not a 9. Ruins the team cohesion as everyone tries to buy him a goal at the expense of overall team performance.
Should be behind Martinelli and Trossard in the left wing pecking order and nowhere near 9. Bench him or better still, sell him.
Good lord
Great news, can’t wait to see him back harrying and terrifying defenders.
On another note, does anyone know the story behind Jesus’s Aretha Franklin tattoo?
I’ll say a little prayer for his recovery.
Lineup when Jesus is ready
Rambo
White saliba Gabriel
Partey rice kai
Saka ode Gabi
Jesus
Very welcome news. Whatever about overall quality , he’s just a far more natural and consistently effective fit for Arteta’s system than Nketiah…
Jesus is very entertaining to watch when he’s on fire. That chip he scored last season 😍. But when he’s not scoring he’s frustrating. I really hope he can smash them in this season and reward the effort he puts in.
P.S I also hope Tierney fights his way back in somehow. He recently said he was happy with his number of appearances last season. I did find that a little concerning but most likely he still believes he will return to 1st choice again at some point.
Good to have him back on. #COYG
I for one have really missed amount of goals Jesus doesn’t score.
As has Jesus apparently
Oh, I believe in Jesus, the Arsenal number 9