The Arsenal faithful will surely have high expectations for Viktor Gyökeres this campaign, but a former Arsenal player has set a low goal target for the Swede in his debut season for the Gunners.
Arsenal have been playing without a recognised number nine for a few years now and many believe a player of that profile is the final piece of the puzzle. The arrival of Viktor Gyökeres has come with a flood of expectation and fans will hope he can replicate the goal scoring exploits that sprung him to the limelight at Sporting. The Swede arrived off the back of a really productive two-year spell with Sporting, plundering 97 goals in two campaigns.
Wright’s Surprising Target
Even with his incredible goal tally in mind, Ian Wright has set a ‘low’ goal target for the Sweden international ahead of the season, suggesting he would be happy with a handful of goals considering he is stepping up into a stronger league.
On the Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, Gary Neville asked the Arsenal legend to reveal how many goals would deem the Swede a success in the Premier League. Wright said:
“I think if he scores 10 to 15 goals in the Premier League with another five or six pitching in obviously.”
A shocked Gary Neville then replied:
“10? 10 is low isn’t it. 10 is low, eh?”
After being pushed further, Wright finally settled on 15 goals, and when he was asked whether he would have been happy with that tally during his playing days, he added:
“It’s a different time. I don’t want to put him under pressure. I think if he can get 15 and go from there that would be magnificent because we have to get the other guys going as well. I will take 15 in the Premier League. We were 17 goals behind them (Liverpool) last season, if we can get someone to bring another 15.”
Can Gyökeres Deliver?
The 27-year-old has already gotten off the mark albeit non-competitively and he will be looking to start strongly when the season commences this weekend. Arsenal face Manchester United in their season opener this afternoon.
Coming back to Wright’s comments, would 15 league goals represent a successful debut campaign for the Gunners in the top flight?
What do you think, Gooners – would 15 goals be enough for Gyökeres to be considered a success in his first Premier League season?
Your thoughts appreciated in the comments.
Benjamin Kenneth
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I think 15 goals would be a brilliant return,particularly if he scores at important times. A goal scored to turn a 1-1 draw into a 2-1 win is more important than a brace scored when you’re cruising at 2-0 ahead to make it 4-0.
Drogba was such a striker. Never scored loads of goals but always scored those important goals- when Chelsea were looking for an equalizer or a goal to turn a draw into a win. He always showed up when it mattered and that is something we’ve lacked.
Don’t care how many goals Gyokeres scores as long as he helps us win games that are not going our way. We’ve always won the others even without him. Of importance is that the team wins trophies, not so much individual accolades- those are plenty in the game of tennis or golf.
I think that’s about right. It’s those “striker’s goals”, the key goal(s) in a game to turn things around that I think/hope he’ll supply.
About Drogba, whatever he did elsewhere, he certainly scored a lot of goals against Arsenal. Frankly, he put the fear of God up Wenger’s teams most of the time.
Yeah Drogba just loved playing against us. You always knew the goal was coming. I think it’s partly because we were quite naive at defending back then. Rooney was the other one. Sometimes we would dominate possession but they’d still score and win.
I don’t think these ‘ targets ‘ for the season are particularly helpful for strikers. Why not the player has a ‘ target ‘ of scoring in every game and let the total for the season take care of itself.
I think 15 goals would be a good starter.
With not having a striker for so many years the worry I have is getting the other players used to having a front man.
I don’t want to see us start counter attacking and stopping letting the opposition defenders get in position. Then do our tippy tappy style of play around the opposition’s box. I would rather see a through ball or over the top in to space for our attackers to get on the end of.