Jesus Is Born (Again)

The archangel Gabriel? OK, we'll stop.

There were plenty of “Jesus Is Risen” headlines this past week, though it’s worth pointing out that Easter is in the spring. We all have no choice but to reach for the metaphors, however. Before this, Gabriel Jesus had scored once in 33 appearances, nine in the last season and a half. But Arsenal’s Brazilian #9 has been born again this Yuletide, scoring five goals in two matches to head into the dense thicket of festive fixtures armed with a machete.

He isn’t just scoring, though. He’s buzzing around the pitch, flowing with confidence as he battles defenders on the ground and in the air. He takes a pass between the lines with his back to goal and makes life hellish for a center back, spinning and feinting and dropping shoulders, turning and running with the ball and finding a teammate for a 1-2. “He has back his heart and soul, he has back his goals,” Peter Drury said when Jesus bashed in his first after six minutes at Selhurst Park.

This was a vision of that Jesus who arrived from Manchester City in July 2022 perhaps hoping to prove he could be The Guy for a team that competed for titles. He quickly built partnerships with Martin Ødegaard and Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka as Arsenal became a whirring machine of passing football and elite physicality. They were quicker in mind and body than the teams they ran over for four and a half months. There were scrappers and absolute units in the team who dispelled the notion that Arsenal were a soft touch. They were were top of the league at Christmas.

Jesus was a massive part of that, one of those aforementioned scrappers who won battles up and down the middle of the pitch and stitched the play together. And then there was the Winter World Cup, when Jesus jetted off with Brazil only to pick up the knee injury that would dog him in various ways for the better part of two years.

Now he’s popped up again to score big goals for the Gunners when the peanut gallery is chirping that Arsenal need an open-play coach. What could Mikel Arteta’s team have done with another striking option over the last year? Could they have taken two more points last season with a #9 who was #9ing? There’s no way to know, but he could transform their season here in 24/25.

———————————

BONUS COVERAGE:

TOTTENHAM 3-6 LIVERPOOL

The only time Spurs look like they can defend is when they set up in the half court with their midfield and forward lines behind the ball, so they almost never create that game state. They don’t look comfortable at set pieces, but it’s the high line that kills them. You can’t spend the whole game running back towards your own goal.

There didn’t seem to be any midfield at all. At the very least, the midfield is not considered part of the defensive unit in Tottenham’s current tactical scheme. They half-press and get dissected. Liverpool are a well-oiled machine with slick patterns of play to build out from the back into the middle third, so Spurs tried to play high up the field and their midfield was easily bypassed with an interchange of shorter passes up the field or a high ball. Either way, they put their defenders into a continuous series of all-or-nothing challenges in the middle of the park. When they lost those duels, it sent the white shirts streaming back towards their own goal and into a series of on-the-run 3v3s with Liverpool’s fleet-footed attackers descending upon them.

Spurs have injuries, but the response to that—and Liverpool’s dominant form in the first half of this season—is to adapt and survive. Create a solid core to defend your penalty area and do not leave your 17-year-old makeshift center back exposed. Archie Gray put in a better shift than his more experienced partner, a natural center back in Radu Drăgușin, but this was down to this team’s tactics and mentality.

In the NBC studios at halftime, Tim Howard and Robbie Earle pointed out that there was never any reason to think Spurs would change their approach for the last few minutes of the half after getting back in the game at 2-1. It seemingly doesn’t occur to Ange Postecoglou’s side that they could manage the game until halftime. They got themselves a lifeline and immediately went back to playing basketball. Liverpool’s mentality is decidedly different: Mo Salah came out after their 6-goal feast and said they need to defend better.

As an Arsenal fan of a certain vintage, I probably go for Arsène Wenger references once too often, but Postecoglou’s approach seems to be a kind of philosophical self-destruction that is decidedly late-stage Wenger. Surely we’re not late-stage Postecoglou?⚽︎