Kai Havertz has slipped into the role of Arsenal’s second-choice striker following the arrival of Viktor Gyökeres, who has been entrusted to lead the line at the Emirates. The Swedish forward joined the Gunners this summer after a drawn-out negotiation with Sporting Club, with Mikel Arteta’s side determined to address their lack of cutting edge in attack.
Arsenal’s decision to pursue Gyökeres was rooted in the struggles of both Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, who failed to consistently deliver the volume of goals required to challenge for the biggest trophies. The Gunners are convinced that the Swede, with his prolific record in Portugal, is the solution to their problems in front of goal.
Gyökeres scored close to 100 goals in just two seasons at Sporting, a tally that underlines his ability to find the net with regularity. Arsenal supporters believe that even replicating half of that output in England would be enough to put their team in contention for silverware.
A Difficult Start for Gyökeres
The striker’s debut, however, was less than ideal. Starting in Arsenal’s season opener against Manchester United, Gyökeres struggled to make an impact and quickly faced questions about whether he could deliver at the highest level. His lack of sharpness, coupled with moments of poor execution, drew scrutiny from pundits and fans alike.
One such critic is Troy Deeney, who is not convinced that the former Sporting star is the right man to spearhead Arsenal’s attack. Speaking on Talk Sport, Deeney expressed doubts about the forward’s quality, saying
“Gyokeres, for me, is not the answer. I know it’s only one game in and people will say that he’s rusty, but if you look at his movement, the way he was running, again there was an incident where he went through one v one and stands on the ball. “It’s just, for me I think you are going to see, and I’ve said it in a column in The Sun on the weekend, you’re going to see Havertz start more games than you will Gyokeres over the course of the season.”
Havertz Ready to Compete
Havertz, despite his inconsistencies, remains a strong option for the Gunners. The battle between the German and Gyökeres could prove beneficial in the long run, as the competition for the starting role is likely to drive higher standards and sharper performances from both men.
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The answer might be 4-4-2.
eventually arteta will have to change formation
Will he?
Hopefully🤞🏼.
Gyokeres is like Haaland in that, if he doesn’t get the right service at the right spots within the box or balls into space to run, he’ll ghost through the game just as Haaland does when he isn’t receiving good service, which Man City very rarely do. Man City play around giving Haaland chances to score. They are amazing at that.
Arsenal need to do that when Gyokeres plays. Otherwise, we’ll keep saying him a flop all season.
Strikers like Haaland and Gyokeres, don’t dictate the game, they are there to finish the chances. No point in signing such players, if we don’t give them good chances throughout the game. That’s where the issue is with Arsenal, not Gyokeres. Tell me a single good chance Gyokeres received against Man United.
How does the 1st game of a 38 match campaign signal a difficult start to a season. Does the same apply to Rice. SAKA, and Havertz himself.
This is a very toxic piece that attempts to blot out factors like aclamitization process, integration process, and the fact Gyokeres missed nearly all of the preseason preps and therefore may be short on match fitness. How long has Havertz been given to come anywhere close to his Bundesliga best? It doesn’t help the team to be picking on some players just so your daily report column has something to say.
I wasn’t against the idea of Havertz beginning the season until Gyokers gets to know our play and vice versa. I was surprised he started Gyokeres
Drop Odegard and play Havertz in his place.
I think he just suffered a new knee injury. Extremely bad luck if true. New season just begun, but feels like last season already. But hopefully its not that bad with Kai this time. But we surely need a couple more attacking players before the window closes.
For me, what Gyokeres lacks most at this point is sharpness/fitness because of his short pre season and the only way he’s going to get fit is by playing. It helps that Leeds is a relatively easy fixture that should get his fitness levels up.
Havertz is no doubt the fitter player right now but if we continue playing Gyokeres now while also giving minutes to Havertz, we’ll have two fit strikers to choose from in a couple of weeks.In a way, these first two games are like pre season for Gyokeres,to get him up to speed physically and tactically.
Once both Gyokeres & Havertz are fit, I think it will be the one that performs that starts. If it is Havertz, then so be it. Of importance is the team winning and playing well, no matter who starts.
Well, the Havertz injury has now rendered my point moot which is a shame because I think he has looked really good recently. Fingers crossed it’s not a long term injury.
I guess this means we’ll be seeing more of Merino at Centre Forward. Personally, I would use Martinelli as the first alternative to Gyokeres until Jesus or Havertz returns.
If Havertz has suffered a recurrence of his knee injury, we ought to move for Eze asap.
The Athletic & Sky Sports seem to think so. He wasn’t injured against United, so it would appear (if true) to be yet another, non impact injury.
Agree. If we did it would be a most impressive move (albeit two years late) with throwing a monkey wrench into Spuds plans as an added bonus.
I think it’s good to have both available, isn’t it. Havertz isn’t – and very probably never will be – the out and out striker Gyokeres is – but it’s surely to Arsenal’s advantage to have them in the same squad.
If the news about his injury is true, then we need another attacking signing ASAP, a LW in my opinion, Leo and Merino can deputize for Gyökeres
The unfortunate news about the latest injury to Havertz (along with other injuries to the likes of Jesus and Trossard) has thrown a spanner into the works.
I suspect Arsenal will wait and see how serious the injury to Havertz is before dipping into the transfer market though.
Just read somewhere Arsenal has agreed a deal with Bournemouth for Semenyo. How true is dis?
Doubtful! But I’ve heard Morgan Rogers.
Morgan Rogers would be a fantastic signing but I don’t see it. But Villa are in for Nicolas Jackson and they have no money. So watch this space.
He has only signed a new contract last month. So not true.
Hope it isn’t too serious for Havertz.
Must get cracking and dust off my injury excuses and the season has barely started….
Oh my, SueP, you make me and Derek to be amateurs with that one. Cheers! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bruised Banana,
Steady on, it was good. But I believe SueP is a work in progress. 🤣😂👍