Arteta: A big night for Jesus

Mikel Arteta was delighted for Gabriel Jesus as the Brazil international ended a year-long wait for a goal at Emirates Stadium with a hat-trick that sent Arsenal into the Carabao Cup semi-finals at the expense of Crystal Palace.

The striker rolled back the years with a sizzling second-half performance helping the Gunners come from behind after Jean-Philippe Mateta had taken advantage of an early lapse in concentration by Jakub Kiwior.

Jesus evaded a challenge from Nathan Chalobah before dinking over Dean Henderson to level things up on 54 minutes and then smashed home two low drives as substitutes Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard made their presence felt with fine assists.

While ex-Gunner Eddie Nketiah had the visitors dreaming of a late comeback thanks to an incredible header, Arsenal did enough to earn their place in the next round.

Afterwards, manager Arteta told Arsenal.com: “Obviously, a big night for Gabby, a big night for a player that constantly tries and is not someone that is going to keep anything for himself – he tries to give his best to the team. Today, he produced three great moments, helped us to obviously win the game.”

Having rotated his side heavily knowing Arsenal face Palace again on Saturday, the manager was also pleased with the contribution of fringe players, including Raheem Sterling and Kieran Tierney, who played his first minutes for the club since last season’s Community Shield.

“For other players like Kieran, like Raz [Raheem], that hasn’t played many minutes, that they feel important and feel they can contribute to the team in the right way, so a good night,” said Arteta.

“I was very happy for various reasons,” he added. “The first one obviously because we’re in the semi-final of a competition that we want to win. The game started in a very difficult way with a very naïve goal that we gave away and put the situation into a complicated one.

“After that spell in the first half that we didn’t have that continuous momentum to create threat and opportunities, we made some changes and some adjustments in the way we had to play, and we became a real threat.

“We needed something else and made a few changes and it certainly changed the game.

“That’s what we need when players come off the bench to have that mentality to impact and make things happen, they were really helpful.”

Arsenal will find out their semi-final opponents tomorrow evening but know Newcastle and Liverpool lie in wait following their wins over Brentford and Southampton respectively. Sp*rs and Manchester United are fighting for the other spot.