Gabriel Jesus has admitted that William Saliba's injury hindered Arsenal's title challenge at the tail-end of the 2022/23 season.
Saliba missed the final two months of the Premier League season after suffering a serious back injury during Arsenal's Europa League loss to Sporting CP back in mid-March.
At that time, the Gunners boasted a healthy five-point lead atop of the Premier League table but, after a run of four games without a win in April without their talismanic defender, they would go on to finish five points adrift of champions Manchester City.
The injury to Saliba was one of many to key players that Arsenal had to deal with last season, with the other most notable being the one suffered by Jesus himself during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The forward missed 15 games of the season after suffering a knee injury in Qatar during an extremely busy period of the 2022/23 campaign for the Gunners.
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Speaking on the Denilson Show however, Jesus was keen to state that his injury did not affect Arsenal's performances as much as Saliba's did, stating that team struggled to cope without the French international at the back.
"When he [Saliba] plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn't play, the number [of goals conceded] increases," Jesus acknowledged.
"When I got injured, Eddie [Nketiah] replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo [Trossard). We kept the pace. But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated. The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats, we concede a lot less with him."
In order to be able to combat injury woes better during the upcoming 2023/24 Premier League season, Arsenal have spent big this summer already in order to bulk up their squad. Kai Havertz has joined from Chelsea for £65m, and 90min understands that a £105m deal for Declan Rice and a £40m deal for Jurrien Timber are set to be confirmed by the end of this week.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Gabriel Jesus reveals the injury that cost Arsenal the Premier League title.