Mikel Arteta revealed Gabriel Jesus was ‘disappointed’ despite his two-goal home debut in Saturday’s 4-2 win Leicester City.
The Gunners continued their good start to the new campaign with an ultimately convincing victory with Jesus delivering a man of the match.
Despite not being good enough for the club, he joined a £45 million move from Manchester CityJesus missed several presentable opportunities to score a hat-trick that would have put extra shine on the scoreline.
“We know what Gabi can do,” Arteta said. “He scored two and got two assists and is still disappointed because he thinks he should have scored four. That’s the norm, that’s the mentality. You have to go to another level.
‘I wouldn’t like to play against him. I’ve never been a defender, but I can imagine I wouldn’t like it. He’s so mobile, so intuitive, always sharp and proactive to play at any time and any stage in the game, and it’s a real threat.”
His impact was so great. Already aware of the need to protect the Brazil international, Arteta took him with him during the closing stages ahead of next week’s trip to Bournemouth.
“That’s why we took it off,” Arteta said, explaining Eddie Nketiah’s late introduction.
“I think he’s had 18 starts in the last two seasons and we’re going to require him to start a lot of games, so we need to manage that load when we can. The way we train is also different and we have to be on top of that.’
Jesus also appears to have reached an immediate agreement with his compatriot Gabriel Martinelli, and Arteta hopes the 25-year-old’s influence will reflect on the club’s group of young players.
He added: “I think it lifts the standards the way he is every day, the way he talks to them, the way they connect.
“I think it’s very natural, but at the same time it’s quite impressive to do it so quickly. At the same time, we ask other players to score goals as well.
Granit arrives in the penalty area, he should have scored last week, he should have scored two today, because he had another header. If you want to be at the top, you have to score a lot of goals.’
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