Whenever a team is struggling to take its chances, the focus immediately falls on the striker, and for Arsenal, they really need Gabriel Jesus to start scoring again soon. He made it to five games without getting a goal, and in a game where the Gunners really needed one, the 25-year-old fell short.
Mikel Arteta struck a frustrated figure on the touchline, holding his head as his Arsenal side created chance upon chance only to fail to convert them. But it was Jesus who had a glut of great opportunities, often gifted to him by Martin Odegaard.
Speaking after the game, he was asked what was going wrong for him. Whilst he failed to come up with an answer, he made sure to promise the goals would return.
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“I don’t know, I really don’t know,” said the Brazilian. “If I know, I can tell you!
“But the only thing I can do is keep trying, keep fighting, keep improving. Like I said, I am here to score goals, I am here to help the team with the goals. I understand that. Of course, the goals are coming back soon.”
The mood was natural down after the game, with the players gutted. They couldn’t take advantage of Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and later Tottenham, all dropping points. However, they do extend their lead over the Reds and their north London rivals.
Jesus gave some insight into the dressing room’s mood after the game. It was unsurprisingly down, but there was seemingly an understanding of where it went wrong and, importantly, how they might improve upon their mistakes in their final six games before the World Cup.
“Everyone is a little bit upset because we know we could win the game and get the three points today. I think they played good, but we were better than them.
“We give them a lot of easy balls, and then like I said, we don’t score the goals with the chances we create. Now is the time, you know everyone is going to talk about us, about our performance, I just want to say to the team to be calm.
“We are going to come back strong, play our football like we started the season, and everything is coming back to normal.”
Arsenal travel to Eindhoven with the chance to wrap up top spot in the group if they avoid defeat. This makes the final game at home to FC Zurich a dead rubber and the perfect chance to rotate heavily and rest players before playing Chelsea the following Sunday.
Last season Arsenal dropped points in streaks, whereas this season, the Gunners managed to overcome the sole loss of the season at Old Trafford and restart another winning run. The PSV game might and potentially should take a backseat when thinking about next week’s games.
Ensuring a response comes against a Nottingham Forest side at the Emirates who have just beaten Liverpool is paramount. The focus will be on Jesus and whether he can end this goal drought and make good on his promise.
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