Arsenal’s ‘plan’ for Gabriel Jesus has now been confirmed ahead of January
Gabriel Jesus is nearing a full recovery from a serious injury but could leave Arsenal pretty soon after taking to the field once more.
Gabriel Jesus is back in training with the Arsenal first-team and could soon make his first appearance for the club since suffering a serious injury in January.
Jesus tore his anterior cruciate ligament against Man United and has been forced to watch on from the sidelines ever since, with Arsenal adding to their attack by signing Viktor Gyokeres in the summer window.
Football Insider have revealed that Arsenal are planning to sell Jesus in January after he proves his match fitness in the coming weeks.
Brazilian side Palmeiras are believed to be the front-runners to sign Jesus, and Mikel Arteta’s short-term plans to reintegrate him back into his squad ahead of the new year have now been revealed.
Jesus will play a friendly before featuring for Arsenal’s first-team as he nears return
Jesus has been pictured in full training with his teammates ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League clash against Bayern Munich on Wednesday (26 November).
He will not be playing against the German champions, but Arteta provided an encouraging update on his fitness in his pre-match press conference as he said: “Yeah, he’s quite close to be fair. And it’s earlier than we expected.
“In the next few days, he’s going to have another step to make with a game that we’re going to organise for him.
“And after that, he’s just going to be knocking on the door because there’s Gabi and we knew that was happening.”
Martin Odegaard is also back in training for the Gunners, but Gyokeres and Kai Havertz remain sidelined, with Mikel Merino expected to continue to lead the line.
Jesus could force his way into Arteta’s plans amid Viktor Gyokeres uncertainty
Jesus has been out of action for so long, and the context around Arsenal as a club and their Premier League aims have changed massively in the last 11 months.
He is now part of a squad that is top of the Premier League and are the current favourites to win it ahead of Man City and Liverpool, rather than chasing the latter or the former in years gone by.
The Brazilian forward is no stranger to helping teams to silverware, as he won four titles with the Citizens, and that experience and his undoubted quality could genuinely be needed in North London for the rest of this campaign.
Gyokeres is yet to truly find his feet at Arsenal, with three open-play goals in 10 league appearances so far, and a decent run of form from Jesus between now and January could well see Arteta express a desire to keep him around rather than let him leave.