After a player has scored four goals in one game, it may seem somewhat churlish to suggest what the said player did in the run up to another goal shows why he is so invaluable to his side and manager, but Manchester City are no ordinary side, and Pep Guardiola is no ordinary manager.
Goals flowed for Gabriel Jesus in the Manchester sunshine on Saturday as City expectedly put Watford to the sword, with the Braziian becoming the first player from his country to plunder four in the same Premier League game.
It was a timely contribution in a week where he had been linked with a move away from the club, to make locker space for the incoming Erling Haaland. Yet, what his all-action performance at the Etihad showed was there is so much more to his game than just finding the net, a facet City insist upon.
Jesus is a rare breed in the Premier League. While numerous stars from the land of Jogo Bonito have excelled on English shores, the majority of the most successful Brazilian imports – Philippe Coutinho, Willian, Fernandinho, Roberto Firmino – all honed their craft in other European leagues before coming to England.
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Jesus is one of the few players who signed directly from the Brazil by Premier League clubs, and it is this very fact, according to the man himself, why he fits in so well into at relentless City.
“A street player,” Jesus said asked what his best position is following City’s rout of Watford.
“You run everywhere and then try to fight to regain the ball to attack, fighting for everything. This is my quality.
“I played on the street until I was 15 years old. I learned a lot from that [the streets], we call it in Brazil ‘Varzea’.”
Varzea is the Brazilian version of Sunday League football. Jesus the boy was, in fact, playing on the pitches of a north Sao Paulo military prison, not against rotund centre-backs from the Dog and Duck, but against fully grown adults from some of the toughest parts of Brazil’s biggest city.
And it is that fighting spirit developed on dust pitches that we saw when he was chasing down yet another lost cause, moments after Watford had battled back into the contest to make it 2-1.
Jesus had already scored twice, but him winning that ball back, when he had no right to, before teeing up Rodri for City’s game-killing third, told you everything you need to know about the boy from Brazil. There was no sign of any samba football, just sheer determination.
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Guardiola is fully aware of what he has at his disposal.
“Gabriel is our player,” Guardiola said. “He belongs to Manchester City.
“If there is one person in world football that deserves days like Gabriel had (against Watford), then it is him. We are delighted – he helped us a lot, as he always does.”
The problem Jesus has is the amount of competition for places meaning he has started just under half of his side’s league games this season, something Guardiola acknowledged may persuade Jesus to seek pastures new.
But it is not as if he is banging down his manger’s door demanding to be added to the transfer list – he is just not that sort of player.
“I’m happy because I have the confidence not just from him [Guardiola] but also from the players,” Jesus added. “Now is not the time [to talk about his future]. I won the Premier League three times and I want that feeling again.”
If there is a weakness in this City unit as close to perfect as it gets it is the lack of a proper number nine. Should they sign Haaland, the majority of rivals will feel beaten before next season has even begun.
But just because the prolific Norwegian will lead the line, it does not mean there is no space left for Jesus in wider areas, where he has played for much of this season anyway. It comes down to whether he wants to play week in, week out, or carry on winning medals.
Guardiola and City would be delighted if it was the latter.
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