Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta insisted that Viktor Gyökeres “has so many things that are probably not that noticeable” which makes him an effective player even when he isn’t scoring, including the way that he enhances the performances of his teammates.
Gyökeres was extracted from Sporting CP over the summer at great expense—both financially and emotionally given the tense nature of negotiations—with the simple brief of scoring goals.
The Gunners finished the 2024–25 campaign in second place for the third season running. Kai Havertz was the team’s most prolific player with just nine Premier League goals, ending a 101-year run of at least one Arsenal player hitting double digits in the league.
Boasting a swollen haul of 54 goals in 52 appearances for Sporting last season, Gyökeres was expected to solve these issues in front of goal, yet has struggled to translate his form in the Portuguese top flight to England’s Premier League.
It hasn’t been a campaign entirely devoid of goals—Gyökeres currently leads Arsenal with three in the league—but the Swedish finisher hasn’t found the back of the net since tapping in against Nottingham Forest on Sep. 13. Heading into this weekend’s fixtures, Gyökeres is currently enduring a goal drought which stretches to eight games and 646 minutes for club and country.
But Arteta is looking beyond those top-line numbers.
“He’s going to give you something extra,” Arteta said of Gyökeres while previewing Saturday’s trip to Fulham. “Viktor has so many things that are probably not that noticeable. But he also creates an environment and space and solutions for a lot of the players around him, and with the talent that we have in the team, I’m sure that everybody, including him, will benefit from that.”
Gyökeres’s sheer presence as a fixed central striker is a new quality for Arsenal, who spent large swathes of last season with the unorthodox Havertz and natural midfielder Mikel Merino upfront. Defenders routinely grapple with Gyökeres, which may take him out of action but also, as Arteta pointed out, creates space for his teammates to exploit.
Even when he’s not in direct contact with the ball or an opposition body, Gyökeres can make a difference. The burly forward leads the Premier League for off-ball runs into the penalty box this season (49), per Opta, naturally unsettling rearguards with his myriad of forward darts.
Arteta: It’s Going to Happen for Gyökeres
Arteta offered an unflappable front of confidence when presented with Gyökeres’s scoring drought, insisting this was something that he had even warned the striker about before signing him.
“I told him before the first meeting, the nine that I want is a nine that when he doesn’t score for six or eight games, he can handle that,” Arteta revealed. “If not, you have to go somewhere else because the pressure is gone, the expectation is going to be there. So if you put a No. 9 shirt for Arsenal, you have to be able to say, O.K., six games, don’t score. I’m a different player, I start to act in a different way.
“I want much more of the same of what he’s doing. Once we have those opportunities, put them in. I’m sure it’s going to happen.”
For all of Arteta’s unflinching positivity, some of Gyökeres’s numbers aside from the obvious will surely be a tad concerning. By some metrics, Arsenal’s new talisman is offering less attacking threat than the club’s fullbacks; Riccardo Calafiori can match Gyökeres’s total efforts on goal and Jurriën Timber has taken more shots on target than the formerly prolific frontman.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Viktor Gyokeres’s Hidden Quality That Lets Mikel Arteta Ignore Goal Drought.