Coming into the season, Arsenal were desperate to find a reliable source of goals.
They passed on the chance to sign a raw Benjamin Sesko, instead opting for the more seasoned Viktor Gyokeres, who had notched 97 goals across two seasons with Sporting CP.
A £63.5 million deal brought the Swede to North London, with one clear expectation: score goals.
Having found the net against weaker opposition earlier in the campaign, West Ham at home was seen as the perfect opportunity for Gyokeres to reignite his scoring touch and build some confidence.
However, it did not go as planned.
Tough day at the office
Despite Arsenal’s 2-0 win over the Hammers, this marked a third consecutive game without a goal for Gyokeres, and he never truly looked like scoring.
Yes, he led the line with intent and worked tirelessly for the team, but ultimately goals judge strikers. On that front, he came up short.
Media reaction to Gyokeres’ display
So, another 90 minutes without a goal, how did the press react?
The Express did not hold back:
“Struggled to make any sort of impact. Charged around the pitch a lot but lacked the end product to match. Not good enough.”
Football London summed it up bluntly:
“It was, to put it bluntly, a bit disappointing.”
The Sun captured the frustration:
“The more he tries, the less he looks like scoring. He looks so tense and so anxious to get on the scoresheet that it is having an adverse effect on his game.
“Saying that, he does all the other bits really well, but the fans are going to get bored with that if he does not start scoring soon.
“He also has to learn how to cope with and shake off overly aggressive defenders. West Ham did a proper man-marking job on him, and he could not find much space.”
International break: curse or cure?
The timing of the international break could not be worse for Gyokeres, or it may be exactly what he needs.
A chance to reset, find the net on international duty, and return with renewed confidence.
If he can rediscover his scoring touch with Sweden, he might return ready to silence the critics and remind everyone why Arsenal backed him to deliver.
What are you thoughts on Gyokeres?
Daniel O
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I kind of thought myself, he’s not turning out to be a good scorer for us, BUT, he drags defenders away, he’s a threat, others are scoring and we are winning games. Remember it took time for Henry and Bergkamp to settle in and start scoring, it’s not time to worry yet, he will score goals!
Anyone determining his worth by goals has no idea. Hold up play, dragging defenders out of position, are as important. That’s what he is doing well. Like Isak, he didn’t play for months with the issues of the transfer
He’s a very good player.
He will score more often. Give him time. Anyway his hold up play is very good
If I remember rightlly, a certain T Henry took about 10 games before he started scoring. B4 that he couldn’t hit a barn door
Illogical to compare, completely different type of game and era…Henry was also 22 years old, and he was a winger that was converted to a striker
How can you logically even slightly compare the two situation??
Correctly so. He cant keep ballooning balls over the goal posts and think its all ok.
The everyday excuse that he doesn’t get service is disegnuous. He’s got to account for the chances he’s missing.
He has improved a lot since he came. The team needs to adapt to him and he needs to adapt to the team- meeting each other halfway so to speak.Still adjusting to the league as well.
The goals will come,I believe. One area he can do better in is his first touch. Sometimes a poor first touch takes the ball away from him. There’s not much space in the Prem which makes good ball control an important skill.
Also feel like he’s played too many minutes. Having Havertz would have kept him fresher. Like other members of the squad, he could also benefit from competition.
Meanwhile, his presence upfront is creating space for his teammates,just as is often the case with Havertz. We are winning games and that’s the most important thing.
We now have a proper no 9 and he has missed a couple of presentable chances. But apart from that, he has been left isolated, battered from pillar to post and has held the ball up admirably. He DOES need to score more BUT we do not play with proper wingers to supply him early. The wingers never push inside on attacks to join up with him. Invariably the central attacker, looks to play wide before forwards and misses his runs altogether. We play like 9 outfield and a n other player up top. It is early days and his work is making it easier for others but IF we want more goals from him, the first thing we need to do is give him a decent supply.
I really like Gyokeres but he needs to start producing and soon. His performances seem to be improving which is great but the goals need to start coming
He is not an upcoming talent and he was not cheap, he was purchased as the finished product for a relatively high fee and he is as his prime age already
It is unfortunate for him that our tactics don’t suit a proper striker but unfortunately that’s something he’s going to have to deal with and should’ve probably expected from MA to be honest
If he’s expensive at 65m, what do you say about Witz 115m with no goal contribution so far.
Gyo is playing well, the goals will definitely flotin
Not a good argument at all and pointless comparison, the fact that Liverpool heavily overpaid for Witz is irrelevant to the fact that Gyokeres wasn’t cheap. I never once said we overpaid, simply that 65m is not a small sum of money.
Don’t be so defensive, I’m merely stating the Gyokeres needs to start adding goals soon regardless of the circumstances
Agree that over the long term it will be his goals or lack of which will determine his Arsenal career. At the moment he appears to be the only Arsenal forward getting a “free ride”, allowed to stay on the pitch for a full 90 minutes while the likes of Trossard, Martinelli, Eze, Nwaneri and Madouke compete for game time, although that could change once a fully fit Hartvetz returns. At this stage as long as the goals keep coming across the park our fans will support Gyokeres for his hold up play and work rate, however we also remember, ” Lack of goals”, Lacazette,who also worked terribly hard with so little end result.