When Arsenal signed Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City in 2022, the £45 million deal was viewed as a signal of intent from Mikel Arteta and a testament to the club’s ambitions.

Fast forward two years, and it appears Arsenal might have moved past needing Jesus at the forefront of their attack.

The 27-year-old Brazilian isn’t lacking in quality. He can play centrally, cut in from wide positions, and possesses the flair to unlock defences with his dribbling.

Yet, his time at the Emirates has been marred by inconsistency and injury, limiting his impact and raising questions about his role in a side that has progressed significantly under Arteta’s leadership.

Saturday’s match against Southampton felt like a crucial moment for Jesus.

Starting for the first time this season in the league, he had an opportunity to stake his claim for a place from the start.

However, with the score 1-1 after 60 minutes, Arteta opted for a triple substitution. Off went Raheem Sterling, Jorginho, and Jesus; on came Gabriel Martinelli, Mikel Merino, and Leandro Trossard.

Less than 10 minutes later, Martinelli scored from a Bukayo Saka cross, and Arsenal were well on their way to securing a 3-1 win.

Jesus, watching from the bench, once again missed a chance to prove his worth.

His performance against a struggling Southampton side will have done little to reassure Arteta. Jesus managed just five touches inside the box, attempted only one dribble, and failed to register a shot on target, although he did create three chances for teammates.

He finished the game with an xG of 0.38 and an xA of 0.06. His pass completion rate of 69% was by far the lowest of the starting players, the next being Riccardo Calafiori with 82%.

Jesus’ Arsenal career has been punctuated by setbacks since his arrival. A knee injury suffered during the 2022 World Cup kept him out for almost 100 days, disrupting his momentum.

His return to fitness was seen as a potential game-changer for the club, but the stop-start nature of his performances has continued.

Most recently, a groin injury further hampered his ability to achieve any sort of momentum, despite looking very sharp in pre-season, allowing the likes of Kai Havertz and Trossard to solidify their roles.

Despite his versatility and flashes of brilliance, Jesus has struggled to find the form that justified Arsenal’s investment. His last goal for the club came on 30 January, when he scored and assisted against Nottingham Forest.

Since returning from another knee injury in late February, he has managed just two assists and no goals, a disappointing output for a forward in a side aiming for silverware.

Arsenal’s summer transfer window reportedly reflected a belief that a fully fit Jesus could be a vital part of the squad, mitigating the need to bring in another striker.

Yet, as the season starts to hit its stride, it seems that the gap between Jesus and his teammates might be widening.

Trossard, for instance, who joined Arsenal with a much smaller reputation six months after Jesus, has matched his contributions, with 20 goals and 13 assists in 3,779 minutes—nearly 700 minutes fewer than Jesus.

In 77 games for Arsenal, Jesus has scored 19 goals and provided 15 assists across 4,500 minutes of play. These figures, while respectable, pale in comparison to the impact expected of a marquee signing. Kai Havertz, for instance, has already hit 20 goals for Arsenal, but needed just over a single season to do so.

With younger and more consistent players like Havertz and Saka flourishing, and with Trossard providing a reliable alternative, Jesus finds himself in a challenging position.

It’s not that Jesus is a poor player, but Arsenal’s rapid progress means that the Brazilian is no longer an automatic starter. As the team continues to develop, Arteta has been forced to make decisions in the best interests of maintaining momentum.

If Jesus cannot rediscover his best form soon, he may find himself slipping further down the pecking order.

For now, the question remains: can Gabriel Jesus turn things around, or have Arsenal simply outgrown the player who once embodied their newfound ambition?

If you listened to a large section of the Arsenal fanbase over the weekend, the time for him to provide an answer could be running out.