ANGEL GABRIEL
‘Amazing’ Jesus has helped turn us into winners, says Tierney
KIERAN TIERNEY reckons Arsenal have become addicted to winning after a Gabriel Jesus-shaped injection of hunger in the summer.
The Gunners sit top of the Premier League table with nine wins from 10 games ahead of today’s trip to Southampton.
And on Thursday they secured qualification to the knockout phase of the Europa League with their fourth win from four.
Mikel Arteta’s side are winning games in style and winning games ugly, and left-back Tierney loves the head of steam they have built.
He said: “Winning builds momentum, whether it’s the Europa League, whether it’s a friendly, whether it’s the Carabao Cup, which is coming – we just want to keep winning.
“It started in pre-season when we won all the games. I was injured, but you could feel it after Chelsea over in America.
“There was a good buzz about us, we scored a few goals and it just kind of continued on from there.”
The arrivals of Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City have taken Arsenal’s squad to a new level. And the form Jesus, 25, has shown, in
particular, has been a major focal point for team-mates and fans alike.
Tierney (above) added: “He’s amazing, one of the best, if not the best, I’ve played with.
“He adds so much. He has so much experience as well. He is still young, but he has been there and done it, he has won the league and knows what it takes.
“So to have someone like that come into your changing room is amazing for us.”
Put to him that Jesus – very much the understudy to Sergio Aguero at the Etihad – relishes being the main man at Arsenal, Tierney said: “Yes, and I can see the way he defends as well. He defends with his heart. That’s where the defence starts from, up top, so if you have a striker willing to do that – and we have two, him and Eddie Nketiah are the hardest-working strikers I’ve been around – it helps the midfielders and defenders.
“He just has this inner-drive and hunger. He wants to win everything.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re playing, even if it’s head tennis in training, he is fighting for every point, and that’s the kind of mentality you have to have to win stuff as well.”
Tierney admits he is not jostling for position with Jesus in the head tennis hierarchy at Arsenal’s training ground.
Laughing, he added: “The Brazilians always win. I stay away from that. They love it, they play it all the time, after training, in the dressing room and all that. That’s their game.”