‘I wouldn’t swap Darwin Nunez for Gabriel Jesus’
Robin Bairner
- 8 Oct 2022 22:57 BST
- 3 min read
The Premier League trajectories of Liverpool striker Darin Nunez and Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus have been heading in very different directions this season, but that hasn’t stopped one former Anfield favourite from claiming that he would not trade the Uruguay star for his Brazilian counterpart.
Nunez arrived at Liverpool for a big-money fee from Benfica in the summer but after netting on his Premier League debut against Fulham has struggled to live up to the hype. Indeed, he has drawn a blank since scoring at Craven Cottage, while he was also dismissed against Crystal Palace, costing him a three-game ban.
On the other hand, Gabriel Jesus has been inspirational at Arsenal, scoring five goals, creating four more and leading them to the top of the table with seven wins from their last eight matches.
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Gabriel Jesus v Nunez
The sides meet on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium and Steve Nicol, a Liverpool player during their heyday in the 1980s, has claimed that Nunez has a greater upside than the Arsenal forward.
Working as a pundit for ESPN, he was asked if he would trade Nunez for Jesus.
“No, no, not at all because I think the upside of Darwin Nunez is better than the upside of Jesus,” he claimed.
“Let's be honest Jesus has been in the Premier League for how many years? Five? And all of a sudden, yes, he is playing great, but at the end of the day, he has had a great spell.
“He did have a good spell at the end of his City career, but we are talking about a guy who has been in the Premier League for five years and who has had a good spell for the last four or five months, and yes he has been great for these eight or nine games that Arsenal have had.
“So I think the upside of Nunez is more than Jesus. He has already been in the Premier League for five years, and nobody has said a word about him, all of a sudden, he is a superstar, is he?”
Gabriel Jesus will be seeking to prove Nicol wrong on Sunday, with Arsenal effectively having the opportunity to knock Liverpool out of the Premier League title race before the clocks have changed.
