Gabriel Jesus justifies easy Arsenal decision as Bukayo Saka injury scare ruins landmark night | OneFootball

The Gunners cruised to victory over Crystal Palace but the evening wasn’t perfect

Crystal Palace must be sick of the sight of Gabriel Jesus by now.

The Gunners were excellent at Selhurst Park, running out 5-1 winners to close the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool to three points.

Arne Slot’s side have two games in hand on Arsenal, but displays like this will give Mikel Arteta’s side the belief to think that they can keep pace in this title race.

Simon Collings was at Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal in action…

Gabriel Jesus continues his fine form

After his brilliant hat-trick against Palace on Wednesday night, Arteta had to give Jesus the nod again.

Arteta had described Jesus’ performance on Wednesday as a “spark” and benching him could have seen that extinguished.

The Spaniard said it was an easy decision to start Jesus again and, after just 14 minutes, it was not hard to see why.

By that point, Jesus had already scored twice and playing with the confidence he had when he first joined Arsenal.

There was a hint of fortune about his first goal, as a Bukayo Saka cross made it all the way to the back-post for Jesus to slot the ball home.

The second, however, was a stunning finish as Jesus curled the ball into the top corner after Thomas Partey had set it to him from a corner that Palace failed to clear.

The goals were Jesus’ first in the Premier League since January and he should really have had a hat-trick. He hit the post with a header and missed a golden chance in the second-half, too.

Nonetheless, Jesus will be feeling like a difficult 12 months is behind him. Before playing Palace this week, Jesus had scored two goals in 2024. He’s added five to that tally in the space of four days.

Saka injury ruins landmark night

This was a landmark game for Bukayo Saka as he made his 250th appearance for the Arsenal.

The winger has hit that total at the age of 23, making him the third youngest player in Arsenal’s history to do so.

Saka turned 23 in September, so he is two months younger than Cliff Bastin was when he reached 250 appearances back in 1935, making the winger the the youngest Englishman in Arsenal’s history to reach the milestone.

Injury concern: Bukayo Saka limped off in the first-half.

Getty Images

The evening, however, did not go as Saka would have dreamt. Midway through the first-half, the winger went to cross in a ball and immediately grabbed his right hamstring afterwards.

He went down and, after a conversation with Arsenal physio Simon Murphy, it was clear Saka could not continue.

Saka was hit by a right hamstring injury back in October playing for England and Arsenal now face a nervous wait to learn how bad this latest issue is.

Lewis-Skelly catches the eye again

With Riccardo Calafiori back in the squad tonight - and Oleksandr Zinchenko not far from a return - Myles Lewis-Skelly may find more starts had to come by.

The 18-year-old has performed well this month as Arsenal have battled injuries at left-back, showing why there is so much excitement at the club about him.

Lewis-Skelly put in another solid performance here, battling away with Jean-Philippe Mateta at corners and getting stuck in whenever he could.

Such an attitude has been a hallmark of Lewis-Skelly’s early games for Arsenal and it was on his debut back in September that he famously squared up to Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.

The 18-year-old has already come a long way since then and this has been a promising start to his Arsenal career.