Premier League title race: how does Erling Haaland compare to Gabriel Jesus in 2022?
Arsenal against Manchester City is back on as the title race resumes on Boxing Day - but how do the two star strikers compare in 2022?
Can the gazelle outrun the lion for a little more? Both are fast and dangerous; they have evolved slowly, getting better and better as time has gone by, shaping themselves to fit the system - but only one can win. Arsenal stormed to the top of the league before the World Cup in Qatar kicked off but City are, well, City. We know all about their teeth and claws.
The big question regarding the return of the season is whether Arsenal will be able to keep up their fantastic form in the second half of the season, given the fact they will be without Premier League revelation, Gabriel Jesus, for some time. The forward suffered a knee injury in the 0-1 defeat to Cameroon in the group stages of the World Cup for Brazil and has since undergone surgery.
What Mikel Arteta said about Gabriel Jesus
“We’ll miss him for a period of time,” said Arteta. “The season has challenges, this is a challenge we have to overcome, but if you’re going to be at the top there’s going to be those challenges.” Arsenal have to find a way to cover his absence, be it via the transfer market or one of the squad options, such as Eddie Nketiah.
“He’s gone through surgery and that tells you the extent of the injury, so we will be in the market, always active and we will assess the biggest opportunities we have. We are going to be active and active means we are looking to strengthen the team.”
Gabriel scored 5 goals and registered 6 assists in the opening half of the season, and was the focal point around which Mikel Arteta built his side. “He’s gone through surgery and that tells you the extent of the injury, so we will be in the market, always active and we will assess the biggest opportunities we have. We are going to be active and active means we are looking to strengthen the team”, the manager said. It seems, does not trust the level of the rest of his squad, certainly not in terms of somebody who could keep up with the levels of output Jesus had pre-injury.
It’s a good thing then, the potential challengers don’t pose much of a threat. Oh.
Erling Haaland came to the Premier League this summer from Borussia Dortmund and he has not stopped once to say hello. Instead, he has entered into the houses of every single man, woman and child in England, thrown all the food out of their cupboards and onto the floor, jumped over all of the sofa, knocked down newly decorated Christmas trees and dug holes in all the gardens. And he’s scored about 200 goals, it seems.
Comparing the two, there only is one winner. Haaland outclasses Jesus in every aspect of play: goals, assists, minutes per goal, etc. Jesus, however, is a key aspect of how Arteta plays. The Brazilian can drop deep to receive the ball, drift out wide to create overloads and be a key presence in the box in order to pin back defenders and create more space in the pockets in front of them.
Arsenal’s task will be finding somebody as versatile as he is, somebody who can do a little bit of everything including creating goals himself out of seemingly impossible situations, which is what Jesus has also specialised in this year. And someone who could outrun a lion.