Mikel Arteta admits he has been surprised by the speed of Gabriel Jesus’ adaptation at Arsenal and has discussed the club’s summer transfer business.
Arsenal have again invested heavily in the squad this summer with five new arrivals, including the eye-catching arrivals of Fabio Vieira from Porto and Manchester City duo Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Jesus has made an immediate impact across the course of the Gunners’ pre-season campaign, scoring seven goals in five fixtures, including a hat-trick against Sevilla in north London.
Arteta worked alongside the forward during his time on the coaching staff at City, and having admitted he will have a different role to the one he had at the Etihad, he says even he has been surprised by how soon Jesus has settled.
“When you bring top players from top clubs where they’ve been successful, they are going to expect pressure,” Arteta told his pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal’s season opener at Crystal Palace.
“The role Gabby has here will be different to the role he had at City. That will take adaptation and time; he’s done it fantastically well and we are surprised how quickly he’s done it.”
Arteta discussed the evolution of his squad with the club having overseen mass changes in recent windows. The Spaniard believes there will be more incomings and outgoings before the transfer deadline, but is confident he now has a squad suited to his brand of football.
“It’s always been my team. We have changed the squad. The players we have are more specific and better to the way we want to play obviously.
“We are really active as you can see with ins and outs. Everything is still open it’s a long window. It’s incredible how much business the club has already done. It’s not gonna stop.”
