Arsenal will get a closer look at Sporting CP’s Victor Gyökeres when the two do battle in the UCL 5th game-round.
After returning to winning terms in the Premier League last weekend, the Gunners will now turn their attention to getting back to winning ways in the Champions League. Unlike against a team like Forest however, we will have to overcome a far more superior outfit in the form of Portuguese side, Sporting CP.
It will be a far tougher contest, not just because it’s away from home but also due to their incredible form. Indeed, the Lisbon-based outfit are unbeaten throughout this campaign, barring the Portuguese super cup loss (AET) to Porto at the very start of the season, which you can view as being a glorified friendly anyway.
Their only dropped points came against PSV in the UCL which is quite remarkable to say the least. Since that loss to Porto at the very start of the season, Sporting have since gone unbeaten in the subsequent 18 games till date, drawing only one in the process. The most impressive of those 17 wins is without a doubt the 4-1 thrashing of Manchester City in recent weeks. The fact that they dismantled City by that scoreline will tell us how difficult the game will be.
Sporting are currently in second place in the Champions League table behind Liverpool, and six points ahead of Porto in the domestic League after 11 games. And even more worryingly, Sporting haven’t lost a home game in any competition for over a year!
They played their first game after the departure of Ruben Amorim last week and in proper Sporting fashion this season, they absolutely blew their opponents away. They beat Amarante FC 6-0 in the Taca de Portugal, a goal scorer on the night unsurprisingly was the in-form Victor Gyökeres.
The Swedish international has been nothing short of mesmeric this campaign, scoring left, right and center for both club and country. This has seen him net over 30 goals already and we’re only in November! Because of this hot form, it has seen a whole host of top European clubs piquing interest in him. One of those clubs who had an interest even before the start of the campaign was Arsenal.
Against Sporting, Arteta and some of the club executives will get the chance to take a closer look at a player that gooners have been clamoring for us to sign, and who knows, maybe an inspired performance from the Swede will persuade the Gunners to pursue his signature with more speed. Not that we wnt him to help to beat Arsenal tonight!
Thoughts on this gooners?
BENJAMIN KENNETH.
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He doesn’t seem to want to join Arsenal, so I’m hoping he has a stinker and we can say, “Not good enough for us.”
In hammering Amarante 6 – 0 in the Portuguese league over the weekend, the newly installed head coach of Sporting said, he had to play them as of it was Arsenal they were playing.
These minds games are right up the gaffer’s street
It’s a pity though that Arteta’s “mind games” don’t work more often than not.
So on the eve of playing Inter Millan, the gaffer stated ‘ It’s these European nights he likes playing football in’ but things didn’t quite go as plan ehh 😗
Yep, that’s exactly what I meant.
Mind games are, according to the dictionary: “intended to discomfit another person [team in this case] or gain an advantage over them.” That one certainly didn’t work if it was intended to be an example, did it.
Does Arteta even want a goal scoring striker? Does that type of striker even fit into Arteta’s system? Is the final decision Arteta’s, or is it the Board’s?
Unlikely any big transfers in January, so it’s just gossip at this point. Sesko and the very expensive Isak seem to be targets for Arteta, more so than Gyokeres.
Then again I’m only speculating, but either way don’t expect anything until the Summer, and maybe nothing even then.
I doubt any quality strikers (or many quality players generally) will be available in January.
I think that Arsenal do need a competent striker as they clearly can’t rely upon Jesus to fulfil that important role and Havertz, while excellent generally, isn’t a prolific goal scorer and never has been.
As the Board (the owners, KSE, in effect) decided on the finances, it’s down to them even if Arteta pushes for such a signing. The loss of his close ally Edu could also have an effect on Arteta’s overall influence on the Board I think.
In any case, a lot of money has been spent so far so I suspect the Board would want to see a few sales in the summer to compensate, partially anyway, if a move for a striker is made.
Based on Arsenal’s interest in Vlahovic and Sesko, I think they’re looking for a more physically-dominant CF than a sharpshooter like Gyokeres
I think gyokeres is at just as physically dominant as those two, and faster. He scores a lot of goals, but he also sets up a lot of goals – I think he’s a great fit in terms of playing style, only question would be how he could adapt to the EPL. (Excluding how much he’d cost and whether he’d be interested in joining us, of course)
“at least* as physically dominant”
I hope you’re wrong, because we need Saliba to dominate Gyokeres in aerial and ground duels tonight
Gyokeres is more physical than Vlahovic and Sesko.
We’ll see how he would fare against Saliba’s physicality tonight
Gyokeres has a high work rate which should suit us He does a lot of running so I am told and has a bit of physicality If we want him then hopefully Manu can’t afford him as they may need six or so new players They might have to prioritize which is never ideal at the beginning of their rebuild
Three seasons ago I urged Arsenal to buy Gyokeres for around 15m from Coventry.They missed the boat and have chosen to invest in players who are not natural strikers and never will be.Whether or not Gyokeres is a better ,more rounded player now than he was with Coventry is another issue but he certainly impressed me with his performances in our competitive Championship and he appears to have found another gear with the sun on his back.I look forward with considerable interest to see how he performs against the likes of Saliba and Gabriel .
no one was suggesting an average Coventry striker was the answer to Arsenal’s prayers 3 years ago
Gyokeres failed audition badly