How instances have modified. Arsenal are going right into a Premier League marketing campaign with a feared No 9 main their assault.
The £64million signing of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting Lisbon provides the Gunners the firepower they’ve so badly lacked in latest seasons.
Kai Havertz was the membership’s high scorer with 9 Premier League objectives final season; that claims all of it.
This marks a brand new period for Arsenal. Gyokeres struck 54 objectives in 52 matches throughout all competitions in 2024-25 — a jaw-dropping return, whatever the Portuguese high flight’s energy — and has already given a flavour of what he brings to Arsenal.
The 27-year-old made a quiet 13-minute cameo on his debut towards Tottenham in Hong Kong final month, mustering simply two touches. But indicators of what the Swede can provide got here to the fore towards Athletic Bilbao final weekend.
Day by day Mail Sport analysed Gyokeres’ 39 league objectives final season to evaluate how Arsenal can greatest utilise their new striker….
Viktor Gyokeres has already made his mark in an Arsenal shirt, scoring a glancing header of their pleasant towards Athletic Bilbao
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has warned that his new star striker can ‘destroy’ defenders
At 6ft 2in, with a pointy burst of pace and robust physique, Gyokeres is a tough proposition for opponents.
After scoring towards Athletic, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta warned: ‘He pins each centre backs. If you happen to depart him with area one towards one, he’s going to destroy you so he’s going to create plenty of area for us. In any state of affairs there’s a participant there that may rating a objective.’
That need to ‘destroy’ and rating from any state of affairs might be seen from his objectives in Portugal. One-to-one technical coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst, who has labored with Noni Madueke and Folarin Balogun, sees the striker as a very good match for Arsenal.
He informed Day by day Mail Sport: ‘Gyokeres is fairly full. He’s actually sturdy, he’s highly effective, he’s fast, so he can run past the defence, maintain up play, and might journey with the ball as properly.
‘What Arsenal have lacked within the final couple years is an out and out No 9. So someone that may be that fox within the field and rating these first-time finishes.
‘Arsenal have gotten high quality within the broad areas of midfield and the complete backs can contribute, however there’s now somebody who can rating a objective out of nothing and end these possibilities.
‘Having that somebody up high and occupying these defenders and the area will give extra space for the attacking gamers round him.’
The Gunners have struggled with changing penalties. They scored simply 4 of the eight they had been awarded throughout all competitions final season, utilizing 5 totally different takers.
Gyokeres is as dependable as they arrive from the penalty spot, with the Swede scoring 27 of his 28 penalties taken throughout his time at Sporting
Gyokeres fired residence two penalties when Sporting beat Manchester Metropolis 4-1 in final season’s Champions League
Gyokeres brings calm and consistency. He netted 12 spot-kicks final time period — 5 to the proper, seven to the left, so anticipate him to seize the ball subsequent time the Gunners win one.
Eight of his 25 open play objectives concerned runs from exterior the realm on the left flank.
He can be afforded a lot much less area towards Premier League groups who usually play with a low block towards the Gunners, however Gyokeres’ explosive means to interrupt traces and pivot in direction of the left does add a markedly totally different dimension.
The significance of Saka usually leaves Arsenal counting on utilising play on that proper facet, which leaves their steadiness lopsided.
For instance, within the Premier League final season Arsenal had attacking touches on the proper flank 43 per cent of the time, in comparison with 33 per cent on the left. This gave Gabriel Martinelli, who operated on the left, further area, however groups had been usually content material with placing no less than two gamers on Saka and taking the danger on the opposite facet.
Whereas Gyokeres’ risk in operating in from behind at full pelt and chopping in sharply, scrambles the minds of defenders.
They’re not sure whether or not to lose their place fully in monitoring the fast motion away from the realm, or backing off within the hope they will usher him away from objective.
Aged 19, Gyokeres joined Brighton from Swedish membership IF Brommapojkarna. He didn’t play a single minute within the Premier League and was despatched on a sequence of loans earlier than transferring to Coventry, the place he scored 40 Championship objectives in two seasons.
Final season, Gyokeres did essentially the most harm driving from the left channel into the penalty space…
…whereas nearly all of Arsenal’s possibilities had been created from proper flank by means of Bukayo Saka, resulting in an unbalanced assault
A supply who labored with Gyokeres at Brighton informed Day by day Mail Sport: ‘His favoured facet is to come back off the left. That’s in all probability a realized side from Brighton as a result of he was made to play on the left to slot in Aaron Connolly down the center. Gyokeres by no means obtained a lot probability down the center as a No 9.
‘I believe Arsenal wanted a powerful highly effective runner down the center to stretch opponents and create area for the No 10 and inverted wingers. He (Gyokeres) is a keen runner so can do this.’
However that is only one component to his recreation, and one he won’t be able to utilise as freely in England.
He additionally likes to occupy area centrally and within the space. He took 9.1 touches contained in the opposition field per 90 minutes final season which compares favourably to Havertz’s 5.1. That is the place the Swede could have most impression, owing to the less possibilities to run in behind defences due to low-block set-ups.
Of his 39 league objectives, 11 got here when he acquired the ball contained in the field, with many showcasing old-school striker instincts — near-post darts, toe pokes, and sharp one-touch finishes.
The supply added: ‘He wants to remain central at Arsenal as a result of they’ve sturdy broad gamers, you don’t need him to get of their area.
‘He’ll get possibilities and can rating as a result of he’s a very good finisher. He’ll slot in properly as a result of Arsenal don’t have that sort of participant.
‘He’s mentally a lot stronger now than he was at Brighton. He was 19 then — he wanted to construct confidence in a international league coming from Sweden and didn’t get that at Brighton. He had doubts in his head. Now you may see his mentality is totally different. He’s a person now, not a boy.
Gyokeres has matured mentally and bodily since his three-year spell at Brighton, throughout which he scored simply as soon as
The 27-year-old has confirmed himself as a penalty-box predator, as proven by this map of his 31 objectives from open play final season
‘Although he’s a confidence participant. He wants to begin properly. His actual character will present if he goes 5, six video games with out scoring. That would be the actual take a look at.’
How Arteta utilises the striker has some similarities to the state of affairs Pep Guardiola discovered himself in three years in the past.
The signing of Erling Haaland at Manchester Metropolis in 2022 noticed Guardiola subtly change his ways.
In January 2023, after Haaland’s hat-trick towards Wolves, he stated: ‘We all know his high quality. We can not play a false 9 with him and we’ve to adapt some actions.
‘He has to get the balls delivered as a lot as attainable.’
It noticed the 2 midfielders past Rodri pushed additional up the pitch to assist help the Norwegian, and fewer crosses whipped into the realm (dropping from 23.2 per recreation to 19.7).
What Haaland has additionally offered is the flexibility to occupy centre backs, permitting room in behind for different attacking gamers like Phil Foden to run into. In that season, Foden struck 11 league objectives and racked up 5 assists, benefitting from this further area.
Gyokeres just isn’t as tall because the Norwegian, however has a equally sturdy physique and explosive bursts of tempo. It will permit him to pin again defenders and stretch the backline to create pockets for Arsenal’s extra inventive gamers like Martin Odegaard.
The addition of Erling Haaland in 2022 remodeled the best way Manchester Metropolis play, with Pep Guardiola utilizing the Norwegian as the point of interest of the assault
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard will profit from the additional area created by Gyokeres’ presence up entrance
Comparable patterns could possibly be seen final weekend, significantly when Madueke got here on at half time. He’s extra direct than Martinelli and stored looking for Gyokeres within the space.
Of their attacking touches, Manchester Metropolis elevated the quantity within the central third from 25.8 per cent to twenty-eight.8 per cent within the season Haaland arrived. The attacking touches in each the left third and proper third dropped.
Gyokeres can do the identical centrally, turning into that point of interest within the field — however with the instruments to supply instinctive finishes, one thing his team-mates aren’t as geared up with.
A powerful signal already is the ahead’s early willpower to utilise his head extra. He failed to attain a single headed objective final season, however has already proven an urge for food to turn out to be an aerial risk. Towards Athletic, he scored a header, getting away from his marker to look Martin Zubimendi’s curling cross into the online. He additionally struck a submit with a diving header later within the match.
The striker affords all the things Arsenal have lacked: objectives, ending intuition, and penalty-box nous. In actual fact, the final time the Gunners completed runners-up in three straight seasons, they went on to raise the league title in 2004.
After a 21-year wait, the arrival of Gyokeres could possibly be the lacking piece that lastly pushes Arsenal over the road.
