Mikel Arteta has welcomed Gabriel Jesus’s response to being left out of the starting lineup against Bayern Munich in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final and praised the “toughness and character” the forward has shown in recent weeks.
Jesus was a surprise omission against Bayern but came off the bench to set up the Leandro Trossard equaliser that gave Arsenal hope heading into Wednesday’s second leg in Germany. The Brazilian said before the first leg that he could not “remember the last day I played football without pain”, and admitted his participation in this summer’s Copa América was in doubt as he considers further surgery on a knee problem that has plagued him since the last World Cup.
Arteta, whose side face Aston Villa on Sunday, said the 27-year-old’s reaction to being on the bench against Bayern had set an example to the rest of his squad.
“They can be angry at me, that’s fine, but they have to make it professional not personal,” he said. “It’s my role to make those decisions, It’s not the person I am putting on the bench, it is the player. Gabriel had exactly the mindset that you would ask of him. I could see in his eyes that he was ready to make an impact. He loves the competition and he was tremendous.”
Arteta added: “If you ask any player, they will say that sometimes there is pain and they have to deal with that. That makes you as well, and Gabby has this toughness and character that he always wants to overcome.”
Arteta revealed that Gabriel Magalhães was a doubt after the defender did not train on Friday. Arsenal, the leaders, could find themselves third by the time they kick off, with Manchester City and Liverpool playing earlier fixtures. But Arteta, who praised how his side “managed emotionally” against Bayern after going 2-1 down, insisted they were getting used to dealing with the pressure.
“We will know the results but we’ll still have our duty to win our game, which is the only thing that we can control,” he said. “That’s happened a few times already and it’s going to happen again in the next few weeks, so we’ll just focus on what we can do, what we can control and make sure that we perform like we have to do against a really good side to try to beat them.”
The Arsenal manager seemed slightly embarrassed when asked about the incident against Bayern involving the goalkeeper David Raya and Gabriel when the defender escaped conceding a penalty after mistakenly picking up the ball after a goal-kick. Bayern’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, was fuming, but Arteta said the Swedish referee had applied “common sense”.
“I did notice it, especially after there was a certain reaction from them,” he said. “I think the referees used the law and the law says to use common sense and whether you take an advantage from that situation which there isn’t advantage.”
