Gabriel Jesus has been one of the best attackers in the Premier League over the past few years.
The Brazilian won countless trophies at Manchester City before helping to transform Arsenal into one of the best teams in the country too.
However, according to Anton Ferdinand, speaking on Five, The Brazilian wouldn’t be the scariest attacker to face as a centre-half.
Ferdinand says that he’d much rather play against Jesus than someone like Darwin Nunez, claiming that Nunez’s directness is much more frightening than Jesus’ hold-up play and ability to drop deep.
Nunez scarier than Jesus
Ferdinand spoke about the Arsenal striker and his Liverpool counterpart.
“I’d rather play against Jesus, do you want to know why? Nunez takes you back towards your own goal, Jesus doesn’t, he doesn’t run. That’s fine, he’s a top player, I really like him, but for a defender you’d rather play against someone you can’t get the ball off of at the halfway line but on the edge of the box you can leave them. If someone is running at you, that’s the run they don’t want to make back towards your own goal, he stretches you, and he puts you under immense pressure, that’s why,” Ferdinand said.
Silent assassin
Yes, Jesus may not be scary in the same way Nunez is because he doesn’t run in behind or possess electric pace, but make no mistake about it, he’s making a difference in this Arsenal attack.
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You would say that players like Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are more frightening than Jesus, but, they wouldn’t be half as good if they didn’t have Jesus playing alongside them knitting everything together.
It’s no coincidence that both Saka and Martinelli enjoyed their best goalscoring seasons for Arsenal last term in Jesus’ debut campaign.
Nunez may be more frightening, but in terms of an overall game, Jesus may be more effective.