Martin Odegaard says he’s excited to play alongside Gabriel Jesus

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Martin Odegaard has told ESPN that Arsenal are lucky to have Gabriel Jesus in their ranks, and suggested that he is excited to play alongside the striker during the coming campaign.

Jesus, of course, is the marquee addition in another busy summer for Mikel Arteta’s men. They have strengthened in a number of areas after coming up agonisingly short in the battle to finish in the top four in the Premier League last season.

Arsenal absolutely had to strengthen up front. Alexandre Lacazette departed after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was released at the start of the year.

But the Gunners responded superbly to Lacazette’s exit. They have signed Jesus in a £45 million deal from Manchester City.

Jesus was never the main man at the Etihad Stadium. But his record for the Cityzens is outstanding. And obviously, he has won a raft of honours with the club.

He has made a superb start to pre-season. And Odegaard has suggested that the Brazilian definitely has the ability to help Arsenal take that next step.

“I’ve only trained with him for a few days now, but it doesn’t take long to see that he has a lot of qualities,” Odegaard told ESPN. “I think he will bring a lot of good things to the team. I’ve seen him play a lot for Man City and yes, I think we are lucky to have him. I’m really excited to play with him and link up, I think it could be fun.

“You see a lot in training to see what he’s like. Strikers, they want different things but you just have to watch him in training to see where he wants the ball. My job is to feed him and try to make him score goals. That’s what I want to do.”

Odegaard lauds Arsenal signing Gabriel Jesus

Goals from up front were a problem for Arsenal last season. Their strikers only managed nine Premier League goals between them. Clearly, that is nowhere near enough.

Yet, all they needed was a couple more and a top-four place was probably theirs.

Jesus is definitely an upgrade on what they had. And they have moved forward in a number of other areas over the summer.

The race for the top-four is definitely going to be hotly contested this year. If Odegaard and Jesus hit it off, Arsenal will most definitely be in the mix.