Arsenal Jorginho has made a veiled jab at his Chelsea’s replacement, Enzo Fernandez, after the Gunners’ 3-1 victory at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Jorginho was signed by Arsenal just before the January transfer deadline. When the Italian was almost forced out of Stamford Bridge, the Blues were almost ready to complete a move for Fernandez.
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly agreed to pay a transfer fee that would break the British record by little under £10 million. Jorginho’s successor, Fernandez, has stepped in immediately, and the 31-year-old would have struggled for playing time if he had stayed.
For £12 million, Mikel Arteta acquired Jorginho from London rivals Chelsea to bolster his team’s chances of winning the title. For the visit of his former club, he received just his fifth league start since his arrival and his first since March 1.
Arsenal cruised through Frank Lampard’s woeful side to reclaim top spot in the Premier League. Jorginho has subsequently sent Fernandez a subtle message via his social media sites.
He shared a series of photographs from the game on his Instagram feed and story. “We keep pushing until the very end,” he captioned a post. Thank you so much for all of your help.”
However, astute viewers noticed in the third image, Jorginho had won the ball and advanced past Fernandez. In the image, Argentina’s World Cup winner was left floundering on the floor.
So far, orginho has stayed silent about Chelsea’s choice to replace him with Fernandez. However, this is the first time we’ve seen him do so, so there may have been added motivation to perform directly against him.
On Tuesday, Arteta benched Thomas Partey to make room for Jorginho. The Spaniard revealed why he brought him in instead of Partey from the outset.
Arteta said: “What he brings every single day in training: leadership, intelligence, capacity to control the game, the way he communicates with people, the quality that he brings, the level of attention, the experience because he’s been in many situations like these before. That’s just the way he plays.”
