Gabriel Jesus showed why Arsenal signed him as he netted twice on his home debut to help beat Leicester City in a topsy-turvy encounter.
The Brazilian striker opened his account for us with two goals in the opening 45; the first was a sumptuous piece of play that saw him chip the ball into the top corner from inside the area before he nodded in from close range 13 minutes later to put us in control.
And despite a Wiliam Saliba own goal halving the deficit, we bounced back within two minutes thanks to Granit Xhaka and repeated the trick again when Gabriel Martinelli netted moments after James Maddison had once again given the visitors hope.
That proved to be enough to secure a second successive win at the start of the season, and kick our campaign off in the perfect fashion.
Arteta
“I think the crowd was special, especially after Saliba’s own goal. The way they reacted was something I’ve never seen in football; the amount of support and connection they are showing with us, and especially with William, lifted the team straight away. I have to thank them so much for that.
“From the first minute, they were electric. You feel like they are totally with us, totally engaged and it is so energising for the team. The boys keep talking about it – they can’t wait to play in front of this crowd, and it’s making a huge difference.”
Xhaka
“I’ve got more freedom to go up and down,” Xhaka explained. “I know I can do that. I have a lot of freedom from the coach, from my teammates.
“At the moment I’m happy with how everything is going. Let’s continue to work like this and hopefully at the end of the season we can be more than happy.
“It’s always good when you score and it’s always good when you can help the team – not only me, but all the players did a great job today. I’m more than happy to help, of course.”
What’s next
A pair of newly-promoted clubs await us next, as we head to the south coast on Saturday, August 20 for a teatime meeting with Bournemouth, before hosting Fulham at the same time a week later back at Emirates Stadium.
Source: Arsenal.com
