Mikel Arteta's side travel to Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday and will get a first-hand glimpse of the striker they truly need
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Throughout Arsenal's largely successful 2023-24 campaign, it felt like they were gearing up towards another summer headlined by a headline-grabbing signing. They had smashed their transfer record to bring in West Ham captain Declan Rice prior to the start of that season, and the final piece of the jigsaw that needed fitting was a striker.
Alas, the Gunners largely kept their powder dry heading into 2024-25. They added around the fringes with the acquisitions of Euro 2024 stars Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori, with Raheem Sterling also pinched on an opportune loan from Chelsea on deadline day. Yet the long-awaited arrival of a true centre-forward is still rumbling on.
Mikel Arteta seemed content on keeping Kai Havertz – a £65 million signing that Arsenal shouted from the rooftops was intended to play in central midfield – as his starting No.9, but if Arsenal are to end their two-decade long wait for a Premier League title, then they need more in attack.
Enter Viktor Gyokeres, Scandinavia's latest abnormal, freakish hitman lighting up Europe with Sporting CP and Sweden. On Tuesday, Arteta and Arsenal will have a front-row seat as they get a good look at the striker they should be going all out to bring in.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportStats don't lie
Have we, as a sporting collective, become a little too obsessed with numbers and statistics? Probably, but for strikers, goals will forever be the bread and butter. These are not merely numbers, rather the crucial differentials in this low-scoring game of ours.
This season alone, Gyokeres has 33 goals in only 25 games for club and country. We haven't even reached December yet. And of course, you can take the scoring rate with a minor pinch of salt because of the lower level outside the continent's top domestic divisions and the top two divisions of the Nations League, but at some point you reach a terminal velocity for scoring. Gyokeres has somehow eclipsed even that, and is averaging goals at a ludicrous and almost unprecedented pace.
Gyokeres has outgrown Portugal and needs a fresh challenge, particularly while he still has this upward momentum and confidence flowing. Arsenal, meanwhile, could do with a dynamic scorer to lessen the burdens on Bukayo Saka and the recently returned Martin Odegaard. This makes too much sense already.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportPasses the eye test
It helps Gyokeres' case for a blockbuster transfer that he also looks the part of a marquee striker. Since his days of being sent out on successive failed loans by Brighton, he's put on plenty of muscle and bulked all the way up – his before and after pictures mirror those of Chris Evans in 'Captain America' when undergoing the super-soldier experiment.
Gyokeres can throw his weight around both in and around the penalty area, though retains the technique and ball-carrying of forwards half his size. He is thundering yet graceful, a bull tiptoeing their way through the china shop.
It is this unique blend of styles, in addition to his obvious scoring prowess, that should be of interest to Arsenal, and it'll be interesting to see how he fares against two other man-mountains in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Getty Images SportProven in England
We can sit around and debate the merits of the Primeira Liga, but what should assure Arsenal and Gyokeres' other suitors of his pedigree is the success he endured before he jetted out to Portugal.
For two seasons there as a permanent player, Gyokeres was the star jewel of an extremely competitive Coventry City side who were a play-off final penalty shootout away from reaching the Premier League. The following year, without the Swede in the side, Mark Robins' men were cruelly denied a spot in the FA Cup final and challenged for promotion again. This was a proper team and Gyokeres was a proper player for them, a side deserving of a place at England's top table. Their status as a Championship club didn't reflect their peaks or their ceiling, though England's second-tier is now famous for helping the development of most of the nation's superstars regardless.
Little over a year removed from that stint in the East Midlands, Gyokeres then ran Manchester City ragged with a hat-trick in the Champions League to ignite Ruben Amorim's farewell tour, if you wanted any further proof of his ability to hang with the big boys. At this point, Gyokeres is as sure a thing to make the step up as any other player not already plying their trade in a top-five league.
Getty Images SportKeeping their powder dry
The most sensible clubs realise that sometimes your transfer shortlists shouldn't be extensive. When Liverpool failed to sign Virgil van Dijk in the summer of 2017, they didn't move on to another target, rather they waited to try again in the next window. They knew they had to get an upgrade in a core position correct and that their £75m couldn't go to waste.
Arsenal, perhaps, didn't sign a striker in 2023 or 2024 as they felt the market was too volatile. There wasn't a sure-fire upgrade to be had at a reasonable price, nor a talent so indisputably brilliant that they thought it'd be worth their while to pay over the odds for. Ivan Toney's betting ban and outward desire to leave Brentford for must have put Arteta and co off, while Victor Osimhen's demands were too extravagant for even Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea to match.
There is now the right candidate available for the Gunners to hedge their bets on and the excuses for not doing so will wear thin, particularly if another team lands Gyokeres and he meets expectations.
