When Gabriel Jesus limped from the Lusail Stadium field on 2 December, having played 64 minutes for Brazil in a game against Cameroon they could afford to lose – and eventually did – the effect on his club bordered on catastrophic.
Thursday brought the regrettable sight of Jesus on crutches at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground. “Progressing”, followed by a series of motivational emojis, was the one-word social media message. After Mikel Arteta said he was unwilling to set a timescale on a return from mangled medial knee ligaments, the Arsenal manager next veered into the dangerous territory of attempting to take the positives.
“If you’re going to be at the top there’s going to be those challenges,” said Arteta, for whom the Christmas restart brings a series of anniversaries. It was three years ago on Boxing Day that his tenure began, a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth from which only three starters remain in Granit Xhaka, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka, who was then playing left-back.
Two years ago, Arsenal entered the Christmas period in 15th, doubts circling a manager whose competitive career had begun with that aforementioned Bournemouth game. This time last year, a 5-0 win at Norwich, in which Saka scored twice for fourth-placed Arsenal, signalled 12 months of decent progress and doubts dissipating.
Another year on, topping the league at Christmas, five points clear of Manchester City and even allowing for a truncated schedule of just 14 matches, counts as unexpected – though deserved – progress. For it to continue, starting with West Ham on Boxing Day and then a New Year’s Eve trip to Brighton, Arteta must locate the means to replace Jesus.
Although Jesus headed to Qatar after 10 games without scoring, his leading of the press had done so much to dictate Arsenal’s tempo and forge their adventurous attacking style. Arteta has brought out a side of Jesus rarely apparent at Manchester City. He has been their yard dog, forever snapping at the heels of opposing defenders, an irritant of a level perhaps not seen in the Premier League since Jamie Vardy was in his snarling Leicester prime.
Arsenal gave so much to be top when the World Cup came around, with nine players reaching more than 1,000 Premier League minutes – the joint most of any squad, along with Newcastle. And yet Manchester City can welcome back Kevin De Bruyne to feed Erling Haaland, the Belgian seeking redemption after his country’s dreadful World Cup, the Norwegian goal machine rested and hungry. Newcastle in third can be thankful that Bruno Guimarães, who played in that same Brazil v Cameroon game, is back amid their midfield. All while Arteta carries the heaviest collateral damage from the mid-season interruption; Arsenal have also been dealing with the fallout from Ben White’s premature exit from the England camp.
“We have done everything that we could to support him to again give him an environment that he is comfortable in,” said Arteta. White was able to join his clubmates in their Dubai training camp during the hiatus. “He has been exceptional with us and that is what we expect for him.”
If such issues eat at Arteta, he will not be letting any rivals know. His team’s clear, impressive evolution has gone significant distance to burying any previous idea he was little more than Pep Guardiola-lite after three years at City, with a smattering of Arsène Wenger’s high ideals drawn from the later Arsenal years of his playing career.
This week’s public declaration that “this squad still doesn’t have the luxury of not maximising every single window” was a reminder to the club’s owners, the Kroenke family, with whom he described “a very special relationship”, that he will not settle for second best in the transfer market. Wenger rarely spoke so explicitly on that subject.
In the West Ham manager, David Moyes, Arteta will face another key, probably overlooked influence. He played some of this best football under Moyes at Everton, often as a winger within a team playing hard, direct football. “I had to adapt or die, basically,” he recalled. “It was very challenging but for my own education and development as a player, I think it was really rich. Every manager gives you some marks and some moments that build the beliefs you have in you what you want to do.”
There is much of Moyes’ stern determination in Arteta, and adapting his own team’s forward line looks the strongest suit in coping without Jesus. Eddie Nketiah, for all the manager’s affection for the young south Londoner, has not started or scored in the Premier League this season. That suggests one of Saka, the 21-year-old “veteran” coming off a fine World Cup, or Gabriel Martinelli, the same age but having struggled to make much impact with Brazil, will be asked to lead the line.
“I feel a really good energy around the place,” said Arteta in welcoming his World Cup contingent home, though without Jesus to take up the cudgels, it will have to be a different Arsenal that make their return to action.