Arsenal closed out their final fixture of 2025 with a 4-1 win over Aston Villa, but much of the post-match conversation focused on one celebration rather than the scoreline. After a shaky opening 45 minutes, Gabriel surged forward from defence to open the scoring with a scrappy finish from a corner. Mart\u00edn Zubimendi then doubled the lead and Leandro Trossard\u2019s third was allowed to stand following a VAR review.<\/p>\n
The match was sealed by Gabriel Jesus\u2019s strike in the 78th minute, his first goal in 363 days after a long recovery from a serious injury. \u201cIt was 11 months, 11 months of doubting yourself,\u201d he said of the period after his ACL tear in an FA Cup clash with Manchester United last January. His goal, finished at the end of a flowing counterattack, prompted a loud reaction from the player and the Emirates crowd.<\/p>\n
Jesus removed his shirt to reveal a top reading: “I Belong to Jesus.” The design was noted to be in the exact same font and style as the design unveiled by Brazilian playmaker Kak\u00e1 following AC Milan\u2019s triumphant Champions League final victory over Liverpool in 2007.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s rules on such displays are clear. The FA handbook states: “Players must not reveal undergarments that show political, religious, personal slogans, statements or images, or advertising other than the manufacturer\u2019s logo.<\/p>\n
“For any offence the player and\/or the team will be sanctioned by the competition organiser, national football association or by FIFA.” Whether the wording on Jesus\u2019s undershirt will be judged allowable may determine whether a sanction follows.<\/p>\n
Jesus has been open about the role of faith during his rehabilitation. “Every single day for the first two or three weeks, I asked why it happened to me,” he recalled. “And then I understood that I needed to be closer to Jesus, to God, to read the Bible. It helped me so much, you know, because it kept me believing that I\u2019m a son of God and then I could do everything if I felt God\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
“If I didn\u2019t hear the Bible every single day, I am 100% sure I would not have believed I could come back stronger than ever. Now I believe even more, because I\u2019m a son of God.”<\/p>\n
There is precedent: in April 2025 Liverpool\u2019s Cody Gakpo revealed an identical undershirt and received no punishment beyond a yellow card. After the final whistle at the Emirates, Gabriel also made a show of stuffing three outstretched fingers into his pocket; fans noted Villa\u2019s Onana had made the same gesture earlier in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus’s return and ‘I Belong to Jesus’ undershirt sparked FA rules debate after Arsenal win in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,711,969],"tags":[1073,872,1215],"class_list":["post-5606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-aston-villa","category-premier-league","tag-acl-injury","tag-cody-gakpo","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}