Mikel Arteta has challenged Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah to find the goal trail again after the pair have been off the scoresheet in recent weeks.
While they may have seven strikes between them this term, neither has netted since Nketiah notched against Bodo/Glimt at the start of this month, with Jesus’ last goal coming in the previous game - the north London derby win over Tottenham Hotspur.
That means six games have passed since either celebrated a goal, and Arteta feels the team need the duo firing again to help us get back to winning ways, starting with Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest.
“We need goals and we need them from our front players, that’s for sure, to win the games and give us bigger margins,” he said. “That run of lack of goals has to end for us to be in the position for us to win more matches.
“Training is very restricted [due to congested fixture schedule] but sometimes it is a lot of mental things that you can work on and discuss. With the experience that they have, it is not the first time that they have been five games without scoring a goal in their careers - it’s happened to every striker that I know of. You have to deal with it, it’s part of the job.”
Jesus also spoke about his recent form ahead of the midweek game against PSV Eindhoven, and also suggested that every striker goes through these periods but has the belief that he’ll soon be recreating his famous telephone celebration sooner rather than later.
“I feel like I’m not doing things properly like I started the season,” he said on Wednesday. “But I think we’re still doing very good. In one of the tough leagues, we are still in first position and we are playing good, but obviously we want to score more goals to win the games.
“It’s four games I’ve started and I don’t score. That’s happened before and I’m pretty sure in the future it’s going to happen again. That’s football - I don’t want it to be like this, of course. I want to improve, I want to work, like always in my life and then the next game, I try again. And I’m 100 per cent sure I will score.”
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