“Having faced Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Lamine Yamal many times, I can proudly say I’m not scared of any defender again but this particular Arsenal player who I will never like to face and I pray Arsenal don’t get to quarter-final”: Real Madrid defender Antonie Rudiger names Arsenal’s player as the most difficult attacker to face in the world

Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix says Gabriel Jesus is the toughest opponent he has faced, while he enjoys playing against Erling Haaland.

Lacroix has impressed since joining Palace from Wolfsburg over the summer, having come up against some of the best strikers in the world like Haaland and Alexander Isak. However, Lacroix has named Arsenal star Jesus as the “most difficult player” he has come up against.

Jesus netted a brace in Arsenal’s 5-1 win over Palace back in December and Lacroix was hugely impressed with the Brazilian. “The most difficult player I’ve played against is Gabriel Jesus, he scored a lot against us,” he told talkSPORT.

“It was difficult because he has good movement. I like to play against Haaland because he’s strong, we know it’s going to be a fight. I don’t like when players run a lot.”

Jesus has since suffered a season-ending ACL injury and Arsenal have been left without a frontline striker after Kai Havertz also suffered a serious hamstring injury that has ended his campaign prematurely.

Havertz recently underwent successful surgery and shared an update on his recovery. In a post on Instagram, Havertz wrote: “The last few days have been tough to process both physically and mentally. But yesterday was a good day.

“A successful op and a win. Thanks for all the messages of support over the last few days, it’s really helped. I’m now focused on my journey to full fitness and giving all the support I can give to the team in the background.”

When asked about Arsenal’s injury crisis earlier this month, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta said: “Certainly it is a big blow because of the injuries that we have but fortunately, we’ve been through a lot this season.

“We have played without Gabriel, without Saliba, Ben White all season, Tomiyasu all season, Calafiori for two months, Merino for two months, Martin Odegaard for two months, Bukayo Saka for three months, Gabriel Jesus… all of them. So that’s it, that’s the challenge ahead.

“I love it and look forward because we are still where we are with all the things I mentioned on top of playing four times with 10 men, blah blah blah. Let’s see what the team is made of.” Arsenal will be back in action on Saturday when they host West Ham at the Emirates.