Gabriel Jesus will score a lot more goals for Arsenal this season after making a change to his style of play in the win over Brentford, according to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Jesus netted his fourth goal for the Gunners in their comfortable 3-0 win in west London on Sunday afternoon. The 25-year-old, who arrived in a £45million transfer from Manchester City in the summer, has helped Mikel Arteta’s side win six of their opening seven Premier League matches.
Arsenal are top of the table going into the international break and Jesus’ finish against Brentford caught the eye of former striker Hasselbaink. The Brazilian peeled off Pontus Jansson to head Granit Xhaka’s pinpoint cross into the top corner past David Raya and put Arsenal 2-0 up.
“It’s [Xhaka’s] cross for me which makes the goal, but what I’m more pleased about is to see Jesus in the box,” Hasselbaink explained on Sky Sports. “We were talking about, he’s coming too much in the midfield but look where he is – that’s where he needs to be to make the difference.
“It’s a great finish but it’s the cross that makes the goal, the cross makes his mind up where he needs to put it – great finish. Last week he wasn’t going into the box, now he’s in the box making the difference and that’s what people will remember him for the end of the season.”
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Jesus has been playing at the top of Arteta’s 4-2-3-1 formation so far this season, with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka on either side. The Gunners’ new striker was used to dropping deep and rotating positions during his time at Man City, but Hasselbaink believes he should prioritise spending as much time as possible in the penalty area.
“He’s a number nine,” he added. “If I’m a number nine, I want players to create from here and there, I can give you a ball and shape you up. He’s come to Arsenal to score goals. He can drop in at times in the midfield but he needs to arrange in the box.
“Who’s going to have chances? Martinelli? Martinelli was out of the game after he had his little spell in the first 20 minutes.”
Arteta was delighted with the performance of his side, who responded to Man City’s 3-0 win over Wolves with another victory to retake top spot in the Premier League. “I’m really pleased the way we played,” he said.
“The performance how we controlled certain areas of the game that are very much needed if you want to dominate the game against Brentford and obviously really pleased to win the match and go top if the league into the break.”
The game also saw William Saliba head in and Fabio Vieira curl in from distance to score on his first Premier League start for the club. After the international break the Gunners will play Tottenham in the north London derby on October 1 before a Europa League tie against Bodo/Glimt on October 6.
