Gabriel Jesus has defended his own comments on his goalscoring ability, explaining that the quotes were taken out of context.

Over the international break, Gabriel Jesus was quoted as saying that scoring goals is “not my strong point”.

The quotes hit social media, and they were taken out of context to criticise the striker, with many fans claiming Jesus had said he wasn’t good at scoring goals.

But that wasn’t what the Arsenal man meant. He’d intended to say that his biggest strengths were in qualities other than goalscoring, not that he wasn’t also good at putting the ball in the back of the net.

Jesus scored for Arsenal in the 6-0 win over RC Lens on Wednesday night, as well as providing an assist, and he explained his comments after the game.

“It’s hard to explain,” Jesus said. “I said this, but not in that way. I have other qualities as well, but I can score.

“Sometimes people just go to the result and see who scored, they don’t see the game. I understand my game.

“But the only people who can see it are those who watch the game and understand.

“Those who don’t understand will say that, ‘Oh, he didn’t score today’. But maybe I run and open space for someone and then, let’s be honest, I don’t miss a lot of chances.

“Obviously, I want to score every game, if it’s possible a hat-trick! But that’s not the reality.

“If you say my name, people say other things and not just goals — so I am happy with this — but I want to score.”

Stat website WhoScored gave Gabriel Jesus their second-highest rating of the week for his performance against Lens, with only Joao Cancelo of Barcelona earning a higher score.

Arsenal fans will be delighted with the Brazilian’s output since his transfer from Manchester City last year, and there should be plenty more to come.