With ESPN Brasil sending several journalists to England this week, they’ve managed to get several interviews with Premier League players.
The latest to have spoken to them is Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus, who had a live conversation with Paulo Andrade and Mauro Marra.
The most interesting part of this interview was probably when he spoke about his switch from Manchester City to the Gunners this summer. The player made it clear that he left the Etihad side because of Pep Guardiola’s tactics, even though he insists he has no personal problems with the manager.
“I was very happy during the time I was at City. What I say doesn’t mean that I wasn’t happy, that I wasn’t glad. But obviously we also have to understand. Just as I accepted it in the time I was there, the way the coach, Pep, wanted, and it was clear, he didn’t have a problem with me or anyone else,” Gabriel Jesus told ESPN Brasil.
“The thing was the way he understood football and what he wanted. Then it’s up to you whether you accept it or not. Because if you don’t accept it, it’s ‘thank you’ and we’re off to another challenge, another club. That’s what I did. Because I accepted for a moment, and there came a moment when I said: ‘I want something else for myself’. I thanked him, ‘thanks for everything’, he understood and we moved on.
“And coming here, obviously it’s different. It’s different football, different players, different forms. It was different there, obviously. The striker usually doesn’t touch the ball so much, you can watch the games. And, when the striker had to touch the ball, he ended up putting someone else in, a midfielder, not an attacker, to come and touch the ball more. I decided to change, and I came here.”
Regarding his arrival at Arsenal, Gabriel Jesus seems to be more at ease playing under Mikel Arteta, who he’d worked with previously, as he has more freedom and to express his own way of playing.
“I talked a lot to Mikel about the game, about my flexibility on the pitch, what I like. He knows me, I know him, I understood what he wanted from me. I go out to play ball with a smile on my face and trying to do my best.”
Gabriel Jesus spent five and a half years at Manchester City, having left the club with 85 goals and 46 assists in 236 appearances. Since the move to Arsenal, he’s had a great start with the Gunners, with four goals and three assists in only eight matches so far.
