Jesus makes mockery of Shearer criticism before familiar problem re-emerges
Gabriel Jesus left Alan Shearer with egg on his face by putting in a match-winning performance against Sevilla.
Shearer criticised the Brazilian last week for his lack of goals since joining Arsenal from Manchester City last summer. But Jesus hit back at the Newcastle legend by scoring a superb strike on Tuesday, after he had laid on a brilliant assist for Gabriel Martinelli 's opener.
Deep into first-half injury time, he brought down a high clearance, before pulling off a Cruyff turn to send Martinelli racing through to round the keeper and tap in. The striker then stepped up to brilliantly curl in a second goal for the visitors, to seal a crucial win.
It was a superb finish from the 26-year-old and clearly serves to downplay Shearer's concerns over the striker. Last week, the Premier League's record scorer insisted that Jesus was not living up to his price tag.
"Without wishing to pick on him, he has consistently been underperforming his xG over the past few years," Shearer told The Athletic, before referencing a huge miss in the north London derby to illustrate how Jesus has failed to fire sufficiently in the final third.
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Spurs twice came from behind to claim a point, but in the first-half Jesus missed the chance to put Arsenal 2-0 up. He dispossessed James Maddison, who had come short to receive the ball, leaving him with a free shot at goal in the box.
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Gabriel Jesus scored once and assisted another to hand Arsenal a win over Sevilla and hit back at Alan Shearer (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)But he went for power and blazed his effort into the crowd, which would go on to cost the Gunners a win. That led to Shearer raising concerns over the Arsenal star.
"[That] tells you he’s getting into good positions and isn’t finishing them. Exhibit A right here [in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham ]. Jesus does really well to anticipate the pass and nabs the ball from James Maddison’s toes," he added.
"It leaves him in an ideal position in the middle of the goal, with space around him and the choice of aiming either side. He goes with the option of hitting his shot with the front of his foot, which is fine; it’s something I used to do a lot of the time.
"He also goes for power and there’s nothing wrong with that either because power shouldn’t take away from your accuracy. I always felt that if I picked my spot and got my shot away, then the harder I hit it, the harder it would be for the ’keeper to stop it.
"A load of my goals were struck firmly and weren’t more difficult to control. But this is another example of leaning back for a shot; Jesus’ body and technique are all wrong."
Unfortunately for Jesus, he was forced to limp out of the win prematurely with a hamstring problem. Boss Mikel Arteta confirmed it was not a precautionary measure, with the striker now set for yet another spell on the sidelines.
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