He arrived with fanfare. A triumphant clarion call of horns. He announced his arrival and looked likely to lead us to the Promised Land only to suffer injuries and a downturn in form so sharp that he hadn’t scored a goal at the Emirates since January 2024, making “40 days in the wilderness” look like a veritable purple patch. When Gabriel Jesus erupted for a hat-trick to ease us past Palace and into the League Cup semifinal, it started to feel like he might start feeling rejuvenated if not outright resurrected.
Let’s be clear from the outset. Palace are a fairly stingy side despite their position just four points clear of the drop zone. They’ve only conceded 21 goals in their 16 Prem matches—only eight sides have conceded fewer goals. Good thing we sold them Nketiah, right? Oh. Well. Ahem. Turns out he scored last night. The main point here is that putting three past them is a bit of an achievement. That all three of them came from Jesus offers more than a bit of encouragement.
For as nice as it is to progress deeper into this particular competition, and for as nice as it might be to banish those Birmginham flashbacks to the dustbin, I have my sights set on bigger prizes. If bagging a hat-trick inspires Jesus to train harder, earn more time on the pitch, and find the back of the net in the Champions League, Prem, and FA Cup, so much the better for us. We’ve struggled to score from open play for weeks now, and Jesus at his best is almost instinctive in his ability to find gaps and seams to sluice through. Like a lot of finishers, he thrives on confidence. For the better part of the last year, he’s been bereft of that, and that’s likely resulted in him vacillating between tentativeness and over-compensation.
Each of his goal demanded a different kind of concentration and decision-making, further suggesting that he might be able to build on this. For the first, he had to make a perfectly timed angled run away from goal in order to collect Ødegaard’s inch-perfect through-ball, shrug off his defender, and dink the keeper, all in quick, intuitive succession. Confidence: soaring.
For the second, he had to bide his time, waiting off of the onside shoulder of his mark, dipping forward before withdrawing two or three times before Saka could play him through on goal. From there, he had a lot to do, shooting from a tight angle as Henderson, possibly expecting another dink went low. Jesus went high and found the back of the net. Arsenal 2-1 Palace. Confidence: rising to the top of the chart.
For the third, to achieve the trinity, Palace had all ten of their outfield players in our defensive third. When the ball fell to Ødegaard, Jesus was a good 15 yards away from midfield with acres of space to run into to chase Ødegaard’s pass. On one hand, this is the kind of gimme that most strikers will convert 99 times out of 100. Remember, however, that Jesus was still balancing 11 months of famine against a half-hour of feast. In other words, it might have been all too easy to succumb to the all-too tantalising fruit that offered itself to him. With nothing between him and the goal but those acres of space and eons of time, it might have been easy for Jesus to overthink it, to sabotage himself.
He didn’t overthink it. Back of the net: found. Resurrection: complete (?).
He’s made a compelling case to start on Saturday against…um…[checks notes]—Crystal Palace. Huh. What are the odds? With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see how the likes of Trossard, Martinelli, and Havertz respond between now and Saturday. It’d be nice to have some fierce competition across the front line, wouldn’t it? Maybe Jesus’s resurrection might inspire similar revivals among a few players whose own production has fallen off somewhat.