The arrival of Gabriel Jesus at Arsenal will ask the biggest questions yet of Mikel Arteta’s coaching strength and nous, according to Mirror Sport columnist Stan Collymore.
The former Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Aston Villa and England striker reckons the Brazilian could go one of two ways at the Emirates following his £45million transfer from Manchester City.
“Gabriel Jesus is a very good signing for Arsenal,” Collymore said. “But what we now need to see is Mikel Arteta starting to demand more from people in their different roles. Jesus will score goals but, if you allow him to, he will play where he wants to play.
“He will pop up on the left, on the right, in the box if he is allowed to and unless his manager can make him disciplined then he isn’t going to score you 25 goals, it will be more like eight or nine. What Arteta needs to say to him is, ‘Hold it up, lay it off, come alive in and around the box and, via Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, we will get you the ammunition to get in there and be reliable in front of goal. My concern, even at City where you have Pep Guardiola moving you like a chess piece on the training ground day in, day out, was that Jesus wasn’t disciplined. That was the reason he wasn’t first pick as central striker, which he was bought to be.
“Sergio Aguero was meant to be on his way but he stayed because he got in the box and got on the end of things. Like I said about Raphinha when I was talking about his next move last week, if you can get someone who will repeatedly tell a player, ‘Do this and do it 10 times a game and you will be super effective’, and you can get him to do it, you have a massive weapon on your hands. But if you have someone and say to him, ‘Just go and do what you want’, you will still get some goals but he won’t be as ruthless.
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“So it’s simple, we will find out about Arteta now. There’s no Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with his lifestyle to blame, no Alex Lacazette he can blame for being mopey and moody. He has a player who scored a lot of goals in the last few games of last season and has a goals-to-games ratio that is very good. And if he disciplines him and makes him an in-box striker, Arsenal will get a 25-goal-a-season guy and then you are talking about planting two feet in the Champions League positions.
“But if you let him play off the cuff and do all the things that didn’t cement his place in the City team, then you have a very expensive player who will score eight or nine goals a season and just become another generic, nice, Arsenal forward. So the question for Arteta is, ‘Do you have the coaching nous and strength of will to do what Guardiola does with players and say, ‘You play there and only there’. We’ll know by the end of September or October which way it’s going to go.”
