Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus has urged his teammates to 'stay calm' after the Gunners dropped points for only the second time this season.
Mikel Arteta's side remain top of the Premier League but failed to maintain their four point gap at the top of the Premier League table after drawing 1-1 against Southampton at St. Mary's. Jesus failed to capitalise on a number of chances that fell to him during the match and has now gone five games without a goal.
The Brazilian striker thought he had won his side a penalty but Jesus has since revealed the referee's explanation as to why he wasn't awarded a spot kick for a challenge made on him. Arteta admitted he had 'no complaints' after watching his side drop points with reigning champions Manchester City now just two points behind Arsenal in the table.
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As Jesus struggled in attack, Granit Xhaka continued his impressive form and opened the scoring for the visitors before Stuart Armstrong equalised in the second half. When asked why he endured a difficult time in front of goal against the Saints on Sunday, as per Evening Standard, Jesus said: “I don’t know, I really don’t know. 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.”
Arsenal appeared to tire in the second half as they continue to fight at the top of the table through a congested period of fixtures ahead of the World Cup next month, but Jesus isn't using the packed schedule as an excuse. The Brazilian continued: “Sometimes you drop a little bit, but you have to realise and wake up.
"That’s what we have to do. We have to concentrate more, focus more, be more aggressive with the ball, without the ball. I think everyone has the same games.
"We are trying to do our best to win the games, to win them as much as possible before the World Cup. We have to turn our minds and come back playing our game. Of course up front me, B [Bukayo Saka[, Gabi [Martinelli] and everyone try to put the ball in the net.
“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. This league is tough, it’s difficult. Everyone is upset. Now is a difficult time I think, the difficult time is coming. Everyone has to be alert and then focus more.
“We have six games before we stop for the World Cup, so we need to come back stronger because that’s football. We are young and I am still young as well. So we have to be more focused sometimes. We created a lot today but we were not finishing good.
“I put me in that of course, because I had some chances today. I could have scored one or two - and then we win the game. It’s hard, it’s difficult, it hurts, but we have to realise and wake up and improve and come back.”
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