Petit: 'Arsenal can't win with Gabriel Jesus'
"I am satisfied with Arsenal's play from the beginning of the season. They deserved to win Chelsea, but I believe there is still a big gap between Arsenal and Man City," Petit told LordPing on November 8. "I like Gabriel Jesus a lot, but he can't make the difference and decide the game like Haaland. After coming on as a substitute against Fulham, Haaland made the big difference and that's the difference between the two. these two strikers.
In the match against Fulham on November 5, Haaland was a substitute and replaced Julian Alvarez from the 64th minute, when Man City was drawing 1-1 and had to play without people. The Norwegian striker quickly caused a mutation with a header that hit Fulham in the 75th minute, but the goal was disallowed for offside. In the fourth minute of compensation, Man City enjoyed a penalty when Kevin de Bruyne was fouled by defender Antonee Robinson. On the 11m mark, Haaland sank to the lower left corner, sealing a 2-1 victory. This is Haaland's 18th goal in 12 Premier League games this season, averaging him less than 53 minutes to score a goal.
Meanwhile, after arriving at Arsenal for a fee of $ 55 million, Gabriel Jesus scored five and assisted six goals in 13 matches, helping the club to lead the Premier League. However, the Brazilian striker squandered many delicious opportunities and missed the last 8 matches in all competitions. Low scoring performance is also the reason why Man City sold Jesus to recruit Haaland in the summer of 2022.
In this transfer window, in addition to Jesus, Arsenal also recruited Oleks Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira and Marquinhos for a total of $ 145 million. A year ago, "Gunners" even spent more than 200 million USD to sign Aaron Ramsdale, Tomiyasu Takehiro, Ben White, Nuno Tavares, Sambi Lokonga and Martin Odegaard.
The strong shopping helps Arsenal gradually improve their achievements and sublimate this season. In the English Premier League season 2022-2023, they have only dropped 5 points from 13 matches, with 11 wins, one draw and one loss. The best start in 15 years helps Arsenal to lead with 34 points, two points ahead of defending champion Man City.
However, Petit thinks that Mikel Arteta needs to continue to strengthen the force because of the large gap between the main and reserve squad. "In terms of squad depth, you can't compare the quality of Man City and Arsenal's substitutes," he added. "I don't know what Arsenal will do in the next transfer window, but they need to add quality players."
The former French midfielder predicted that Man City would defend the English Premier League title in the 2022-2023 season, while Arsenal only finished second. Liverpool are third and Newcastle will have Tottenham, Chelsea and Man Utd to finish fourth.
Today, Arsenal host Brighton, and Man City play Chelsea in the third round of the League Cup.
