Mikel Arteta stood before his morose squad and let them have it. Four days after a 3-0 defeat at Spurs had gifted Champions League football to their north London rivals, Arsenal had just lost 2-0 to Newcastle, duly wrapping their present to Tottenham and adding a neat little bow.
“They were 10,000 times better than us in everything!” spat Arteta in that St James’ Park dressing room on May 16. “We didn’t earn the right to play; we didn’t win a f**king duel, or a second ball. We were f**king horrible with the ball.”
Heading to face the TV cameras, Arteta knew something had to change. “Today,” he went on, “it’s hard to defend you guys. Hard.”
What the Spaniard wanted was a winner; someone with a single-minded spark to add intensity and fight to a team that, despite improving, had capitulated when it mattered most. Arteta wanted Gabriel Jesus. The same Gabriel Jesus who had just posted the worst all-competitions goals return of his five full Manchester City seasons? Well, yes… and no.
Desperate to beat Chelsea and Spurs to Jesus’ signature, Arteta dispatched director of football Edu, who’d known the 25-year-old since his mid-teens. “Gabriel, I’m here to try to sign you,” Edu told his fellow Brazilian. “But not
