Gabriel Jesus, a Brazilian attacker who plays the number 9 position for Arsenal, may have become a key player there but he has revealed how he was made to cry while at EPL champions, Manchester City.
Jesus had a successful debut year with the Gunners, scoring 11 goals and dishing out seven assists despite missing three months due to a World Cup injury.
Evidently, he was viewed as surplus when Erling Haaland arrived in City and dropped him down the perking order.
Jesus remembers the exact moment he decided to leave Man City:
In a Champions League match against PSG at home, he used Alexander Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy situation. In fact, Zinchenko told me, “That day I felt bad for you.”
“The day before, he didn’t even use [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker. Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes and goes to the game. He told us the team; I didn’t even eat.
“I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother: ‘I want to leave. I’m going home, because he put [Zinchenko] on and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there.’ I went crazy. “That’s when I decided, I didn’t want to stay anymore, and I decided to leave.”
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Jesus has given the rest of his teammates room to shine under Arteta, holding the ball up beautifully and coordinating with Bukayo Saka and fellow countryman Gabriel Martinelli to devastating effect.
Arsenal may be eager to unseat Manchester City as champions in the upcoming season after a remarkable campaign that saw them finish as runners-up to the treble winners.