Yesterday afternoon, Brighton and Hove Albion arrived to the Emirates and put on quite the show, putting an end to Arsenal’s hopes of winning the title.
Following their shocking defeat to Everton, Roberto De Zerbi had predicted: “On Sunday we will show our quality and we will be back to playing in our way. You’ll witness Brighton as it truly is.
Few, however, could have anticipated such a thorough performance from the guests, who breezed through a match that the Gunners had no choice but to win following Manchester City’s 3-0 success earlier in the day.
However, Mikel Arteta’s team gave in to the tremendous pressure and imposing nature of the Seagulls, losing 3-0.
The catalyst for such a success was given to Pep Guardiola much earlier, during the north London team’s trio of draws preceding up to their loss to the Cityzens. Although officially this was the game where Pep Guardiola had all but sealed his first piece of silverware for the season.
The collapse was already complete far before yesterday’s thrashing after giving up valuable points to West Ham United, Liverpool, and Southampton during April.
Few people went into hiding like Gabriel Jesus at these crucial times, when they wanted to share their experience with a very young squad. Many people went missing during these crucial times. The Brazilian has had numerous nondescript performances this year, including his performance from yesterday.
Against Brighton, how did Gabriel Jesus perform?
The £265k-per-week striker, who cost £45 million to acquire, was counted on to provide the team with the required firepower to win the challenging matches. With nine goal contributions in his first nine league starts, Arteta appeared to have pulled off a tremendous coup. His quality while at Manchester had often paid off.
However, the forward has subsequently been unable to contribute in crucial games like the Saints’ draw, their defeat at the Etihad, and yesterday’s meeting against Brighton, when it truly counted.
The striker’s 6.8 rating in that later match may have been an exaggeration given how quiet he was; he only managed 27 touches, while Aaron Ramsdale, his custodian, had more (43).
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The 26-year-old snatched at opportunities when he had the ball as a result of his lack of effect, and his 54% pass accuracy (per Sofascore) meant that he only completed seven passes throughout the entire game before being pulled off after 77 minutes.
When commentating on the game for Sky Sports, Gary Neville brought up the 5’9″ loser, saying, “When they don’t have the ball, they are together and in shape, but it’s this portion when they have the ball that they’ve been sloppy, again [Gabriel] Jesus there.”
To make matters worse, the Brazilian international only triumphed in three of the 13 duels in which he participated, indicating that both his work rate and his will to produce had been lost.
In their most trying times, Arteta needed his big names to stand out. But all Jesus did was continue to remain hidden, and for this, he ought to be cast aside.
