Gabriel Jesus has perfect instant reply to Paul Merson Arsenal Alexander Isak question

Gabriel Jesus has responded in perfect fashion after Arsenal hero Paul Merson was adamant he is not ready to lead the line for Mikel Arteta's side.

The Gunners are locked in a title race but have prompted debate from their goalscoring habits of late. Arriving at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening Mikel Arteta had not witnessed an open play goal from his team in four Premier League fixtures.

Jesus was handed a start in Wednesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final and made good of the opportunity by scoring a hat-trick to send his team through to the last four. However, Merson was far from convinced of his ability.

Asked on Sky Sports ahead of the same teams' Premier League meeting on Saturday if he believes Jesus 'is the answer', he replied: "No I don’t. I don’t. This covers over the cracks."

He explained: "He’s not a natural goalscorer, I know he got a hat-trick the other day. The problem, what Arsenal need is someone that is going to run beyond, like an [Alexander] Isak. Like a [Nicolas] Jackson at Chelsea."

Fuelling Merson's point prior to kick-off, Isak was fresh from netting a hat-trick of his own against Ipswich Town at Portman Road. The Sweden international - now with six strikes in his last five outings - has been linked with making a switch to the Emirates Stadium across the past several transfer windows.

"He (Jesus) doesn’t, he wants to come short and what you’ll find is they keep on coming short and it’ll get a little bit too tight in there. He’s done well the other night but I don’t think he’s the answer, in my opinion," the ex-midfielder ended.

But those comments have been made to look foolish by the only man who could answer.

The opening 15 minutes of Arsenal's latest Premier League assignment saw a flurry of goals, with Jesus bagging both that went the way of the visitors.

His first was a real poacher's effort, running onto the Gabriel's pass in the penalty area to blast beyond Dean Henderson at close range. His second was a similarly powerful strike, this time into the top-right corner after Thomas Partey teed him up from a corner.

With that, he has five goals in roughly 105 minutes of football this week - equating to one every 21 minutes. Only the post would deny him another trio of strikes before halt-time, with Kai Havertz tapping in the rebound to make it 3-1 as things stand.