Pundit claims £45m Arsenal player produced some ‘glimmers of magic’ vs Man City

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Pundit Adrian Clarke was blown away by the performance of Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus against Manchester City on Sunday.

Speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast, Clarke enjoyed the Brazilian international playing outside of his normal centre-forward role.

The £45m forward is very familiar with playing on the wing from his time under Pep Guardiola.

Although he played the majority of his matches through the middle, the existence of Sergio Aguero meant that he sometimes had to play out wide to get into the team.

He was used on both flanks and Mikel Arteta has also benefitted from his versatility.

Against Sunday’s opponents, Arsenal were without Bukayo Saka for the first time in years.

Despite being one of the most fouled players in the league, the 22-year-old is incredibly robust.

At the weekend it was up to Gabriel Jesus to step up in the Arsenal star’s place against Man City and Clarke was delighted with his performance.

He didn’t come away with a goal or assist, but his tireless work on the wing caused the visitors some serious problems.

Clarke raves about Arsenal star Jesus’s performance vs. Man City

Speaking about the Brazilian, Clarke said: “A word on Gabriel Jesus before we move on, I think he produced a selfless performance.

“Because Gabriel Jesus, all he wants to do is terrorise centre-backs and you have a look at his touch map.

“He played between the edge of the 18-yard box and the touchline the whole game. He stayed wide, he stayed on that right side to occupy [Josko] Gvardiol and he grafted and he tackled and he ran and he ran some more and he tackled again.

“And then every now and again he produced little glimmers of magic to get in behind to get into the box.

“It wasn’t his fault that City then shut the door on him, but I thought he had a very spritely performance, but it was also selfless because he played like a defensive winger and it was just a job he had to do.”

Clarke may have been raving about Jesus’s efforts against Man City, but Arsenal teammate Declan Rice wasn’t as pleased.

He was seen getting annoyed at the 26-year-old for failing to play a pass to him at one point during the match.

Despite that one minor mistake, the Brazilian will be delighted to have got one over his old team.

Even though there were question marks over the decision to play him out wide it very much paid off in the end.