Why Viktor Gyokerres could be the missing piece of Mikel Arteta’s puzzle in Arsenal
It was one of the longest and most drawn transfer negotiations from recent seasons, but Arsenal finally obtained his man after having concluded an agreement of a value of up to 64 million pounds sterling with the Sports CP for the striker, Viktor Gykerres.
The Swedish international has long been on the radar of a number of best European clubs after a sensational fate in Portugal.
One of the most feared elite shooters in Europe
Signed for only 20.5 million Sterling pounds from Coventry in 2023, while no English club apparently wanted to try his luck, Gyokerres became one of the most feared elite shooters in Europe.
In 52 games during the 2024/25 season, he achieved 54 goals and 11 assists – 43 more goals than any of his sports teammates, two of which – Trincao and Conrad Harder – made double figures.
The elephant in the room is that Gyokerres has never played at the highest level of the league throughout his career, if we accept that the Portuguese League is one of the slightly behind the “Big Five” of the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Laliga.
And yet, he has always scored goals wherever he played. To this end, Arsenal intervenes where the others feared walking seem less a courageous bet and more a well thought -out decision and considered as a transfer, given their misfortunes before the goal sometimes.
A single arsenal player reached 15 goals last season
Taking again last season as sample size, only Kai Havertz managed to reach 15 goals for the Gunners all competitions … and he was injured in February.
Mikel Merino, although he is a field midfielder, can be satisfied with his nine goals, the same as Ethan Nwaneri, and just a less than Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli (10).
With Gyokerres now secure, however, it should not be necessary for Merino to provide this additional attactive presence, with the exception of the sets.
It is because Mikel Arteta now has something that he aspires – a target man. An attacker who does not only know where the objective is, but has the physicity of retaining the game and bringing his teammates, as well as to remove the defenders from the lens and to open the spaces for Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice to take advantage.
The signature of Gyokerres is also important in that it should see a more direct way of playing Northern Londoners. While being incredibly pleasant aesthetically, the style of Arsenal has often seen them go by that would have almost certainly been meat and drink to someone like Swedish.
Arsenal had become predictable
The Gunners had become very easy to defend against also, in particular towards the end of last season, because we dare to say it, their football had become a little predictable.
They were certainly not boring to look at, far from it, although they clearly did not benefit from it – at least in the Premier League – multiple opportunities for goals that arose.
34 goals conceded in the English high-flying should have really been the platform from which to build a winning team of the title, but only 69 goals scored in the league are finally where Arsenal failed.
To put this in context, Liverpool succeeded at 86 and even Man City scored 72 in what was a fairly horrible season for the Pep Guardiola team, with respect.
It is not only his goals where Gyokerers excels either.
The first route could be one thing next season
Always on the front foot and prepared to hunt a lost cause, his 26 fast breaks protruded any player from his new club. Martineli’s seven were the best performance for Northern Londoners in this regard, and what it indicates is that excessive balls could well become a functionality.
Although the ONE road is an anathema towards everything that Artata is expensive, it is little in fact to buy an attacker of the obvious quality of Gyokerres if his set of skills will not be benefited.
The advantages of a more physical presence can also be demonstrated by the quantity of tête-à-tête duels in which the man in the front was involved in 2024/25. His attempted 443 was at least 120 more than any player on the Arsenal team, although a 50.3% success rate is less than a number of new teammates.
Obviously, Arteta will want to see this advantage for the gyoker game, but the attacker must make a lot more of these challenges if he wants to be a success at the club.
Likewise, the reference with regard to this arsenal should be largely supposed to be a complex accumulation game, and to this end, the Swedish must also increase its game considerably.
Gyokerres clearly needs work on part of his game
The passing precision was the lowest part of his game, and only 73.2% the completion last season is less than each player of the Gunners team with the exception of the goalkeeper, David Raya (70.5%).
This lack of contribution could be neglected if it can continue its rich form of form in front of the goal. An XG of 38.42 eclipses the efforts of the North London, with the 11.11 of Havertz.
There is no doubt that when Arsenal is in the groove, they remain one of the most diligent passes teams in European football who can and play teams outside the park, however, they have always arrived shortly when it mattered.
The signature of Viktor Gyokerres will be considered that to change this and, as long as they play his strength, there is no reason why he cannot become the last piece of Arteta bringing together the puzzle.
