'Super sub': Kevin Campbell thinks Arteta may leave £45m Arsenal player on the bench in the coming weeks

By Charles Jones

Speaking on the Highbury Squad YouTube channel, Kevin Campbell has been discussing Gabriel Jesus and how the player should be utilised upon his return from injury.

The striker has been out of action for three months after picking up an injury at the World Cup, but now, he’s back in action, coming off the bench against Fulham at the weekend.

Campbell acknowledged that the Brazilian forward looked sharp at the weekend after his return to action, but he stressed the importance of not rushing him back too quickly and re-aggravating the injury.

Campbell thinks the best course of action could be to leave Jesus on the bench for the next few weeks to ease him back into the swing of things.

Jesus to be benched

Campbell spoke about the striker’s role in the coming weeks.

“The manager and the players have done a fantastic job in his absence. The key is to get up to speed. He didn’t look like he’d skipped a beat when he came on, but the first one, the adrenaline can get you through and there may be a reaction in the body in the next game,” Campbell said.

“Let’s see how he goes. Jesus can be a good sub to build up to April, in April we will really need him and that extra bit that he possesses, we may have to use him as a super sub to start with and start him a few games in the Europa.”

Roll the dice

It is a risk to throw the £45m man back in at the deep end, but if you’re going to do this sort of thing at any point, now is the time.

Arsenal are 12 games from Premier League glory. They can’t afford to bide their time and wait for their star player to return. They need to be at their best every single week from now until the end of the season.

Jesus needs to be managed carefully, but with an international break coming up, he shouldn’t have more than one or two games on the bench.