Gabriel Jesus suggests Arsenal is a completely different team if the 22-year-old does not play.
Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus has claimed that William Saliba’s injury last season is the reason why his side did not win the Premier League title.
The Gunners were outstanding for most of last season. They were on top of the table for two-thirds of the campaign, and it really did look like they would go all the way at one point.
However, Manchester City went on an incredible run and pipped Arsenal to the title. Speaking on The Denilson Show, Jesus had his say on what happened last season.
Gabriel Jesus says William Saliba’s injury cost Arsenal the Premier League title
Arsenal were the best team in the Premier League right until the start of April.
The Gunners were doing almost everything right. They were great in attack, had a solid midfield and a fantastic defence with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes both having fine seasons.
Arsenal looked the favourites to win the title at one point, but an injury to Saliba meant they had to use Rob Holding in his position, and Gabriel Jesus thinks that’s the reason why they failed.
The Brazilian hailed Arsenal for coping when he was out injured but admitted that they leaked way too many goals in Saliba’s absence in the last few months of the season.
He said: “When he (Saliba) plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number (goals conceded) increases.
“When I got injured, Eddie replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo (Trossard). We kept the pace. But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated.
“The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats we concede a lot less with him”
Our View:
Jesus is spot on! If Saliba wasn’t injured, Arsenal would’ve likely gone on to win the Premier League title.
The Frenchman, now 22, played his first-ever Premier League game on the opening day of last season. He made it look easy and quickly became one of the best defenders in the country.
When Saliba started, Arsenal looked rock solid in defence, and the way he played out from the back immensely helped their transitional play as well.
Once he suffered a season-ending injury, Arsenal began to struggle, and Manchester City took complete advantage of the situation and won the title.
