Dropping out of the top four, not helped by their No.9 curse, Arsenal needed a redeemer. Their new Brazilian forward has offered some divine inspiration
Words Andrew Murray
GABRIEL JESUS
Mikel Arteta stood before his morose squad and let them have it. Four days after a 3-0 defeat at Spurs had gifted Champions League football to their north London rivals, Arsenal had just lost 2-0 to Newcastle, duly wrapping their present to Tottenham and adding a neat little bow.
“They were 10,000 times better than us in everything!” spat Arteta in that St James’ Park dressing room on May 16. “We didn’t earn the right to play; we didn’t win a f**king duel, or a second ball. We were f**king horrible with the ball.”
Heading to face the TV cameras, Arteta knew something had to change. “Today,” he went on, “it’s hard to defend you guys. Hard.”
What the Spaniard wanted was a winner; someone with a single-minded spark to add intensity and fight to a team that, despite improving, had capitulated when it mattered most. Arteta wanted Gabriel Jesus. The same Gabriel Jesus who had just posted the worst all-competitions goals return of his five full Manchester City seasons? Well, yes... and no.
Desperate to beat Chelsea and Spurs to Jesus’ signature, Arteta dispatched director of football Edu, who’d known the 25-year-old since his mid-teens. “Gabriel, I’m here to try to sign you,” Edu told his fellow Brazilian. “But not the Gabriel from this season – the Gabriel from years ago. This year, you haven’t played the way I know you. You’ve lost your shine.”
Jesus looked at his compatriot and nodded.
“You’re right.”
who grew up in the Jardim Peri favela, honing his craft on the city’s dustbowl amateur pitches before graduating from the academy of boyhood club Palmeiras. He was 15 years old when he first came to Edu’s attention, and the former Arsenal midfielder was immediately struck by the youngster’s determination to succeed.
Jesus’ career began in prison. When he was eight, his first club, Pequeninos do Meio Ambiente, played on a scrap of poorly maintained land just inside the grounds of Romao Gomes jail. He would turn out for Pequeninos every Saturday and Sunday morning, then jump in a neighbour’s car to be driven with childhood friends Higor and Fabio (both now part of his entourage) to Uniao do Peri, another amateur club he would play
