‘Leave Gyokeres alone and he will score goals’ – Arteta
Video credit: SNTV
Mikel Arteta is confident that Viktor Gyokeres “will do what he does best” and rediscover the goalscoring form he showed at Sporting CP, where he produced “probably the best stats in Europe”.The striker joined The Gunners from the Portuguese side in the summer in a deal worth up to £64 million, including add-ons, and has endured a hit-and-miss start to life in England.
He has scored six goals in his first 18 appearances, four of which came in the Premier League and two in the UEFA Champions League.
Gyokeres has recently struggled with a hamstring injury which he picked up in a 2-0 win over Burnley – a game he scored in – and after missing four games, managed minutes off the bench against Chelsea, Brentford and Aston Villa.He made his return to the starting line-up against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday, which was his fourth consecutive game without finding the net, as Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win.Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday – live on TNT Sports and discovery+ – Arteta insisted he has no doubts that his star signing will prove his worth in the long run.
“Well, two things,” Arteta explained, when asked about what excited him about Gyokeres’ addition to the squad.
“First of all, a lot of excitement, as it happened, because we were bringing in a proven goalscorer that had probably the best stats in Europe.
“And the second one, a player that comes to a different league, the most demanding league in the world, what happens if he doesn’t score for five or six goals [games]? That was my only question. How are you going to react if you don’t score in five or six goals [games]? Can you cope with that? And then what’s going to happen in the next 100 games? And that’s what you have to see.
“Again, the sample is very small. So, leave him alone, let him do what he does best, be behind him, and I’m sure things will turn up in the right way.”
Gyokeres has shown glimpses of the form he produced last season, which saw him score 54 goals in 52 games for Sporting, including six in eight in the Champions League.
But he has work to do to match his full Sporting credentials: 97 goals in 102 games.
“Working, understanding what he needs more, understanding the things he needs to tweak in this league, in our team, to be more prolific and to be in more dangerous positions,” Arteta said, on how Gyokeres’ form could be improved.
“Wednesday night [against Brugge] he had two big chances as well, and put him as much as possible in that position, and he will do for sure what he wants, because he wants it so badly as well.”
Arsenal striker options ‘very, very strong’
Mikel Merino has impressively deputised in the No. 9 position in recent months following the injury to Gyokeres, with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus also sidelined at the time.
But the Swede will have added competition after Jesus’ return, as the Brazilian took to the pitch in the Champions League win on Wednesday, marking his return from an 11-month-long ACL injury.
Havertz is not too far away either, with Arteta saying it is “a matter of weeks” earlier in December before the German returns from a knee problem.
“You would put them one on top of each other?” Arteta joked when asked if Arsenal have the best attacking options in the division.
“I don’t know, I don’t like to compare, I think we have very, very strong personnel in that position, it’s how we feed them in together. Probably it’s very, very difficult at the same time, depending on the context of the game, but very happy with the players that we have.
“And hopefully, so far we haven’t had them, in six months of the competition, we haven’t had two of those for anything [Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz], Viktor [Gyokeres] not even a part of that as well, so hopefully we are in that position.”
How to watch Arsenal v Wolves on TNT Sports
Arsenal will face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, December 12 at Emirates Stadium.
Kick-off is at 20:00 UK time, with live coverage on TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports Ultimate and discovery+ starting from 19:00.
TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.
You can subscribe to TNT Sports through discovery+, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.To find out where your local establishments showing TNT Sports are, use our Pub Finder.For the latest information on which football matches are on TNT Sports, click here.Here is the TNT Sports schedule and TV guide. And for the full Premier League schedule, click here.
