Ornstein: Arsenal ‘open’ to overseas loan after Jesus injury blow as ‘main focus’ is revealed

Joe Williams
Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus
Gabriel Jesus goes down holding his knee against Manchester United.

The Athletic’s David Ornstein has revealed that Arsenal are ‘open’ to bringing in a forward in January after Gabriel Jesus suffered a serious injury.

Arsenal are having a decent season in the Premier League with Mikel Arteta’s men currently second and six points behind leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand on their rivals.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Gunners’ recruitment over the last year or two is their failure to identify and bring in a top striker.

Although Kai Havertz and Jesus have performed well at times, it has been widely viewed that Arsenal need a more prolific centre-forward to win more silverware, especially the Premier League and Champions League.

Arsenal are already missing Bukayo Saka with an injury, while Martin Odegaard has not hit top form again since his own injury and now they will have to cope without Jesus, who was taken off in their loss to Man Utd on penalties in their FA Cup third round clash.

Ornstein has confirmed that Jesus is set for a ‘long spell’ on the sidelines and it could lead to Arsenal entering the January transfer market for a forward.

The Athletic journalist wrote:

‘It got worse during the United loss when Gabriel Jesus went off and he is now set for a long spell out through a suspected anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture — although it is his left knee rather than the right, on which he had surgery in 2022.

‘Further specialist reviews are scheduled for Tuesday to establish the full extent of the damage, but it represents another major blow for Arsenal.’

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And Ornstein adds that Arsenal are now ‘open to doing business if suitable opportunities arise’ as they already held a desire to recruit the right striker in the summer.

Ornstein continues:

‘Arsenal do have some financial room to manoeuvre, while their desire to recruit both a striker and wide attacker is long-standing and has not receded.

‘The problem is the availability of players that manager Mikel Arteta wants, the level of cost involved and whether the options would represent an upgrade on existing personnel.’

It is understood that Arsenal ‘could look abroad for temporary solutions and are understood to be doing so’ with Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic one name linked.

Arsenal had a number of chances to put their match against Man Utd to bed but the Red Devils held on for a 1-1 draw before eventually winning on penalties.

Reacting to a host of missed chances, Arteta said: “Incredible how you don’t win that game. That’s basically [how you] to sum it up. The dominance, superiority in relation to the opposition, everything we did to try to win the game.

“We [scored] once. With the amount of situations, chances, penalties that we had, you have to score more, we didn’t. We go home extremely sad, but I cannot be more proud of my players.”

Havertz was guilty of missing the Gunners’ best chance inside the penalty area but Arteta was not about to blame one player for their FA Cup exit.

Asked about what he said to Havertz after the game, the Arsenal boss replied: “To him and to all of them: that I love them, that we all love them. Individually and collectively they are a joy.

“What this team produces every three days is incredible regardless of what happens. I am not going to lose sight of that, because of a result or two because we didn’t deserve it.

“What we can do better, let’s try to do it. But it’s difficult to achieve, it’s an emotional part, it’s something related to confidence as well.”