Gabriel Jesus a huge concern as Arsenal miss major opportunity against Fulham

Posted Tuesday, December 10, 2024 by Caughtoffside.com

Opportunity missed for Arsenal as one player's form is a real concern

Sunday's draw at Fulham felt like a massive opportunity missed for Arsenal after Liverpool's game at Everton had been postponed earlier in the weekend.

It was a real chance for Mikel Arteta's side to close the gap on the league leaders and they couldn't take full advantage, which was a real blow. You could sense the disappointment afterwards.

I didn't actually think they played too badly. Fulham are a decent side who have had a good season so far and Arsenal completely dominated them in terms of territory and possession, but again the issue was they just didn't do enough with the ball in and around the final third.

It's an ongoing issue with this Arsenal side, especially when they come up against teams who set up in a low block. They just find it difficult to break teams down.

It was no surprise that the goal they scored came from a set piece, we know all about how dangerous they are from dead ball situations. But given how much of the ball they enjoyed in the Fulham half, they really should have done more with it.

On the whole, Arsenal don't struggle to score goals. They score plenty. They did last season and only Chelsea and Brentford have scored more than them in the current campaign.

The problem is in these really tight games, when teams are sitting deep against them, they can struggle to unlock them. They really do lack that mercurial X-Factor type player who can do something out of nothing and win a game on his own.

That's why I really wanted them to go for Michael Olise in the summer. I think he would have been perfect for this Arsenal team and was the exact type of player that they were missing. Nothing that he has done since moving to Germany has changed my mind.

Gabriel Jesus' form is a real concern as well. His cameo in the second half at Craven Cottage summed up where he is right now as a player.

He looks shot of any sort of confidence. When you throw a striker on at 1-1 midway through a second half you really want to see him influence a game. To get on the pitch and show why he should be starting.

But Jesus did the opposite. He could barely find his man when he was on the ball and when a half chance came his way from Declan Rice's clever pass, he didn't even swing his foot at it.

He was really poor and his ongoing struggle for form and confidence means that Mikel Arteta has little option but to continue playing Kai Havertz week in, week out and he is unsurprisingly now starting to look like he needs a rest due to the sheer amount of minutes he is being asked to play.

So there are clearly attacking concerns at Arsenal at the moment which will once again raise the question about why nothing was done to really bolster the forward options in the summer, aside from the late call to sign Raheem Sterling on loan.

They are justifiable questions as well and you do feel something has to be done to strengthen Arteta's options in the final third in January if they are to have a chance of keeping pace with Chelsea and hunting down Liverpool.