Gabriel Jesus says he has made changes to his mentality as he strives to become more lethal in front of goal.
The Arsenal No 9, who scored one and set up the other in his team’s 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, has worked hard to keep his head up after missed chances. He is also determined to place greater emphasis on getting into the box and finishing.
Jesus has heard the criticism that he is not sufficiently clinical for what feels to him like his entire career. The 26-year-old maintains it is reductive to judge him purely on his goals return given how much he contributes in general play. Moreover, he does score goals. But it is not to say that he is not focused on getting better.
At Forest, Jesus missed a clearcut chance in the 57th minute at 0-0, lashing against the post after a lovely team move. It felt as though Arsenal had been trying to score the perfect goal and now they nearly did, with Ben White passing inside, Bukayo Saka backheeling and Martin Ødegaard swaying one way before playing in Jesus.
Shortly after, Jesus juggled the ball inside the area only to volley high. But he kept going and was rewarded when he made a darting run on 65 minutes to ram a low shot through the legs of Matt Turner from a tight angle. The Forest – and former Arsenal – goalkeeper should have done better. Jesus’s assist was for Saka in the 72nd minute.
“I am changing my mindset,” Jesus said. “I am more focused on the game now. Before, when I miss one or two chances …. that was not the case against Forest. It was more unlucky than a miss when I hit the post but I keep trying. A minute after, I create another one and I miss the time to shoot. I keep working, I keep focused on the game. I try to find another way to score and it worked.”
Jesus was asked whether the mentality change was about not letting his head drop. “Yes,” he replied. “Always when I do this, I think it helps me a lot. The support the fans give me, my teammates, the staff, that’s [also] good.”
Jesus has broadly scored at a rate of one in every two and a half games for Manchester City and Arsenal. For Brazil he has 19 goals in 64 appearances. Jesus warmed to a theme he has previously addressed when he discussed the perceptions of him; how it is goals or nothing and, when the team do not score, it is somehow his fault.
“I have been living with this all my life – in Brazil with the national team, at City and now,” he said. “Sometimes it is all about stats and sometimes it is all about watching the game. Come on! If you watch the game, you see me playing …”
There was, though, a new admission. “Sometimes, like I say, I am not focused on that [scoring goals] and that’s, I think, my mistake,” Jesus continued. “So now, I change my mindset and I will be in the box more and I try everything to score.”
Jesus did well to be on the field at Forest, according to Mikel Arteta. The player took a heavy knock to a knee on the Saturday before last and it was the one on which surgery had been required in December 2022.
Arteta said he did not know whether it would be an ongoing issue and preferred to talk up the striker’s desire to make himself available. Jesus said: “I was in physio this week getting treatment on my knee. I didn’t know if I was available to play or not. But the medical staff pushed me and I pushed them as well. They helped me a lot. I trained the last two days and I was ready to play.”
Jesus has to hope there is no reaction in the countdown to Sunday’s home match against Liverpool. “They are a massive rival,” he said. “But we are at home and we have quality as well. The game we played against them at Anfield [the 1-1 draw on 23 December] was not easy. We played amazing, we scored, we controlled them. But they scored as well.
“We know if we want to win games we have to take risks sometimes and with the quality they have they always create something. But we go to try to control the game.”
