The former Manchester City man inspired the Gunners to a 3-2 win over the Eagles as he netted all three goals to send the North London club into the last four of the Carabao Cup. Jean-Philippe Mateta had given the visitors a shock lead after just four minutes as he was put through on goal by goalkeeper Dean Henderson. Jakub Kiwior had failed to deal with the pass and was then held off by the Palace striker who kept his cool to beat David Raya.
However, Jesus sparked the comeback with a beautiful chip finish over Henderson on 54 minutes then scored two goals in the latter stages. Eddie Nketiah did pull one goal back for Palace but Arsenal held on. They join Newcastle United and Liverpool in the semi-finals with one of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur set to take the final spot when they meet in North London on Thursday.
Asked in his post-match press conference whether Jesus can be a game changer this season, Arteta responded: “Yeah well he brings something, he has that quality, he has a way of creating, generating situations that is quite unique, Gabby at that level obviously is a big asset. It’s been a long period for him without goals and today to score three goals, the three type of goals he scored tonight as well and many actions he was involved, he looked really sharp. I think it’s a great thing for him, great thing for the team that we can rely on a player with such a quality, same with Kieran, same with all the players who haven’t started many games and had the chance to do so.
“It’s now about consistency, so now obviously this is a moment of a spark that will give him so much confidence not only to him but to the team as well, now we can rely on him to change those games and now we need to take it, and give him more games, give him chances because when a player is in that moment it’s important to continue to do that.”
On the result, he Arteta added: “Really happy, we’re in the semi-final. The game started in a way that we certainly didn’t want to with a very simple goal and then our team had to react and I think we did in a great way, showed a lot of character, so much desire to turn things around. In the first half we lacked some threat, we created two or three big chances but didn’t score and with a few adjustments in the second half we got a grip of the game again and we looked a threat.”
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