SOME of Arsenal’s more pessimistic supporters feared that the knee injury Gabriel Jesus (£4.8m) suffered at the World Cup would derail their title challenge.
As it happens, the Gunners compensated for the Brazilian’s absence impressively with Eddie Nketiah (£3.4m) and Leandro Trossard (£4m) stepping up at different times to ensure the wins kept coming.
Still, there’s no doubt the four-time Premier League winner’s return to action has given Mikel Arteta’s side a boost ahead of the run-in.
As if to underline this point, Jesus scored a brace at home to Leeds on Saturday to ensure Arsenal matched Man City’s 4-1 win earlier in the day to therefore maintain their advantage in the title race.
The 26-year-old scored a penalty to open the scoring with usual spot-kick taker Bukayo Saka (£5.6m) on the bench because of an minor injury niggle.
Then in the second half he was on hand to convert Trossard’s smart pullback, just as a No9 should.
Naturally, his performance would have been noted by Dream Team bosses.
Gabriel Martinelli (£3.9m) claimed the Star Man award but Jesus’ haul of 13 points was the biggest of the game and the joint-best registered by a forward at the weekend among all fixtures.
Having been the second-most popular player in the game prior to Game Week 1, the former Man City striker provided healthy returns for a sizeable chunk of gaffers before the World Cup break.
He was transferred out of tens of thousands of teams when news of his three-month lay-off broke but a double-digit haul upon his first league start back gives Arteta and Dream Team managers a nice selection headache.
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There’s only space for three starters in the front line but Martinelli, Trossard, Saka and Jesus would all be justifiably aggrieved if named on the bench when fully fit.
Rotation is inevitable and sensible in a real world context but potentially problematic in the realm of Dream Team.
Will Jesus start every game at centre-forward between now and the end of the campaign?
If so he would clearly be a brilliant Dream Team option.
However, if he’s to share duties with Trossard and/or Martinelli (Saka is a lock on the right when fit) then he may not be given the necessary minutes to provide plentiful returns.
With transfers set to be refreshed on Friday, there must be a few Dream Team bosses tempted to bring Jesus back into the fold… it is Easter weekend after all.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
