Mikel Arteta has revealed Gabriel Jesus is close to returning to full fitness, with the striker back causing “chaos” in training.
Jesus has not started a Premier League game since the World Cup, having been kept on the sidelines with a serious knee injury, but had cameos off the bench in the wins over Fulham and Crystal Palace, and played 45 minutes in the Europa League defeat to Sporting.
The striker is now pushing to be involved from the off against Leeds on Saturday, as the Gunners return to action after the international break looking to pick up from where they left off.
Arsenal are on a run of six straight wins in the League, leaving them eight points clear at the top of the table. Manchester City do have a game in hand though, and the Gunners still have to travel to the Etihad.
Jesus’ availability is a huge a boost to Arteta for the final 10 games of the season, and the Arsenal boss is confident that the Brazilian is now ready to play a key role in the title run-in.
“He is very close to that (100 per cent). In the last 10 days he has really made a big step forward,” Arteta said in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“You can see that he is looser, he is not thinking about it. You can see that he is already creating in training that chaos that he is capable of creating in unique moments.
“He is in a really good place now.”
