It’s funny how quickly the mood changes in football, isn’t it? Heading into Arsenal‘s lunchtime kick-off with Brighton on Saturday, home fans at the Emirates Stadium were buoyed by a perfect start to the season and the new signing of Raheem Sterling.
The Gunners know they have tough fixtures coming up but they can take on anyone with their strong crop of players. Ah, now there’s always a catch, isn’t there?
Declan Rice‘s peculiar sending-off turned the tide of the game as the Seagulls valiantly fought to earn a 1-1 draw on the road. His red card means he’ll miss one of the most important matches of the season away at Spurs after the international break.
What makes this matter worse is the lack of replacements. Mikel Arteta will have to lean on Jorginho with Mikel Merino cruelly picking up a shoulder injury in his very first training session with the club. It’s safe to say that Arsenal haven’t had the best of luck over the last 72 hours or so.
All that being said, it wasn’t just Rice and the officials they had to curse after dropping points to Brighton. They also have Joao Pedro to blame.
The Brazilian continued his bright start to the season in north London on Saturday, putting in a particularly energetic performance against the Gunners.
Pedro was crowned the game’s player of the match, an award he largely won thanks to his well-taken goal in the second half.
However, he wasn’t just vibrant in the penalty box as he danced and jinked his way past a plethora of Arsenal players during his 90 minutes on the field.
It was a moment in the first half that will stick out for Fabian Hurzeler, as the 22-year-old body-feinted his way past Bukayo Saka, leaving him to huff and sigh in his wake.
Then, there was that controversial moment. We have to talk about it. While Rice was sent off for allegedly delaying the restart and kicking the ball away, no punishment followed for an incident where Pedro did the same, perhaps in a worse fashion. As the aforementioned Saka said post-game, some consistency would be nice.
That decision is unlikely to blow over anytime soon but Arsenal must lick their wounds and come back firing after the break for international fixtures. They will hope to do so with Gabriel Jesus back at their disposal.
Arsenal’s answer to Joao Pedro
During pre-season, there was a spring in the step of Jesus again. Last season was a difficult one for the Brazilian who scored just four Premier League goals and spent 85 days on the treatment table.
Even when fit,
the £45m signing rarely started with Kai Havertz’s mesmerising form as a central striker pushing him to the top of the pecking order.
However, as Arsenal geared up for the new campaign, Jesus was fit. At long last. Arteta praised his striker, “you can see in his eyes that there’s a spark there,” he said, hailing the attacker for returning back in “top condition.”
Sadly, it didn’t take long for the former Manchester City man to get injured again. Jesus had played just five minutes of their opening match of the season before he was subsequently ruled out of the encounter with Aston Villa. The manager cited that “he felt something in his groin.”
Once up to speed again, the boss will have an opportunity to unleash his very own version of Pedro, the player who terrorised Arsenal this weekend.
Indeed, according to FBRef’s catalogue of data, the Brighton sensation is the third-most similar striker in Europe’s top five leagues to Jesus over the last year of action. The aforementioned piece of skill to advance beyond Saka shows the similarities in a nutshell. The way they move, the way they manipulate the ball are very alike. There is a reason analyst Ben Mattinson once hailed him as the “heir to Gabriel Jesus”.
A threat on either foot, Pedro is a captivating talent and is sure to get the better of many a Premier League defence throughout the rest of the campaign.
Arsenal are one of the first teams to feel his powers this season and a look at the numbers demonstrates why he’s being talked about so much right now.
So, while Pedro would appear to be the more progressive of the two, driving from deep, it doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t thrive in those areas either.
The two Brazilians attempt a similar number of take-ons and boast similar numbers for expected assists and key passes per 90, illuminating their skillset as not just goalscorers but providers of opportunities too. It’s that attribute which made Jesus such a “monster” – as he was described by journalist Mark Douglas – throughout his first campaign in north London.
Since then, it’s been a tale of woe for Arsenal’s number 9, but there’s still time to bounce back.
