Gabriel Jesus should not have played on and Arsenal failed to use their concussion substitute

Gabriel Jesus won the penalty for Arsenal’s winner against Liverpool but should he have been on the pitch?

If football’s concussion protocols were followed – ‘if in doubt, sit them out’ is the motto, remember – then you’d have to say no.

After being elbowed by Liverpool’s Konstantinos Tsimikas, Jesus looked out cold. He dropped to his knees and fell on his face.

Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus fell to the turf under a challenge from Konstantinos Tsimikas on Sunday

He lay face-down in the dirt with no movement. His team-mates called on the medics to hurry and flipped him on to his side.

Wouldn’t you think that constituted a ‘doubt’? Most reasonable-minded folks would say, for Jesus’s own safety, he should have been substituted.

Jesus eventually came back onto the pitch to help the Gunners in their win over Liverpool

Jesus eventually came back onto the pitch to help the Gunners in their win over Liverpool

The Premier League has the use of concussion substitutes but Arsenal didn’t use one here. The club can say he passed the tests amid his three minutes of medical treatment on the field.

But the replays of that collision with Tsimikas’s elbow made for uncomfortable viewing as Jesus continued, potentially putting himself at risk of another head injury.