Gabriel Jesus has praised Mikel Arteta’s impact at Arsenal, saying the manager changed the dressing room and the club’s direction as the side returned to the Champions League.
Gabriel Jesus has hailed Mikel Arteta for transforming Arsenal, with the forward saying the manager changed the club’s direction and played the leading role in the progress made in north London. Speaking in an interview with Rio Ferdinand, Jesus offered a strong endorsement of the Arsenal boss and his work since taking charge.
Asked how important Arteta has been, Jesus left little room for doubt. “A lot. A lot,” he said, before adding: “He completely changed the dressing room, the club direction, everything.” It was a striking summary from a senior player who has worked under elite coaches and understands the standards required at the top level.
Jesus also made clear that, from his perspective, Arteta’s influence has been visible over a sustained period rather than in isolated moments. “If you see when he started at Arsenal, till now, you can see the amount of things changed,” he said. That line captured the wider point of his assessment. This was not simply praise for tactics or team selection. It was praise for the scale of the rebuild and the change in standards around the club.
Arteta was appointed Arsenal head coach on December 20, 2019 and has since overseen a rebuild that returned the club to the Champions League in 2023 after six seasons away. While his honours to date are limited to an FA Cup and two Community Shields, Arsenal have become far more competitive under him, emerging as regular title challengers over the past four seasons.
The Brazilian then went further when he described Arteta as the central figure behind that rise. “I think he’s the main person that make this happens,” Jesus said. For a manager, that is the kind of backing that carries weight. It is one thing to receive praise from outside the club, but another for a player inside the squad to speak so directly about the influence made behind the scenes.
Jesus also sounded confident when asked whether Arsenal could go on to win the Premier League. “Very confident,” he said, before pointing to the strength of Arteta’s squad and the number of attacking players capable of deciding matches. Jesus said Arsenal were in a “good place” and suggested that depth across the group had helped build that belief.
Jesus’ remarks are unlikely to surprise Arsenal supporters who have watched the club move forward under Arteta, but they do offer a clear insight into how the manager is viewed inside the dressing room. With Arsenal now firmly back among Europe’s leading sides, Jesus’ message was simple. Arteta did not just improve the team. In his view, he changed the direction of the club as a whole.