At a Glance:
- While Gyokeres’ relationship with Arsenal is not a perfect one, he is vital in the trophy hunt.
- He has shown to prosper against European opposition who play higher lines
- Could also get Arsenal over the line in the Premier League thanks to a fairly forgiving run-in
Depending on who you ask, Viktor Gyokeres is either a crafty, physical presence with elite shot power or a confused target man/poacher hybrid whose technical ability can elude him.
The truth is perhaps a bit of both. In 49 games with Sporting last season, the Swedish international scored 52 goals and contributed 12 assists for a jaw-dropping campaign overall.
His time at Arsenal has been inconsistent, to put it mildly. There have been rumours that the Gunners were never fully convinced by his signing, and at the time of writing, he has scored only 19 goals in exactly 49 games, 37 fewer than he had at this point last season in Portugal.
Despite this reduction in output, Gyokeres could be intrinsic to both Arsenal’s Premier League and Champions League fortunes—and his Man of the Match performance versus Atletico Madrid proves it.
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Viktor Gyokeres proved he can be a real handful in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid
A lot of attention pre-match was given to an attacker linked with Arsenal, Julian Alvarez, rather than the current Gunners frontman, Viktor Gyokeres.
The 27-year-old scored Arsenal’s only goal of the game, smashing home a penalty that Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak was unable to save.
This performance saw him pick up a rating of 8/10 in Read Arsenal’s player ratings, but it was not just the spotkick conversion that left fans happy with his display.
Early in the game, Gyokeres used his strength and pace to drive the ball forward into the Atletico final third, crossing into the box and creating a chance for Martin Odegaard that unfortunately did not result in the Gunners opening the scoring affair.
His stats for the game also indicated a positive performance, with his one shot on target being converted, successfully completing a key pass, and averaging 67% pass completion overall in what was a scrappy ordeal.
Five goals in 11 games perhaps does not indicate that Gyokeres has been at his most clinical this season, but scoring at a rate of just over a goal every other game means that he should have a big part to play in at least one of the legs in a Champions League knockout round.
He showed that against Atletico in the first leg, and if Arsenal are to win next week at the Emirates, then having a proven goalscorer starting in the final is more important than ever, even if his form from prior seasons has regressed.
Can Viktor Gyokeres be the decider in whether Arsenal win the Premier League?
Obviously, he can. The question is: how likely is that? In 32 games, Gyokeres has 12 goals, ranking him in seventh place among the English top-flight’s goal-scorers.
Six of these goals have come in games where Gyokeres has scored a brace—Leeds and Sunderland earlier in the season, and against Tottenham away in the North London Derby.
All three of these teams are in the bottom half of the table at the time of writing, and the Gunners’ next four fixtures include three bottom-half teams, West Ham, Burnley, and Palace.
Gyokeres unlocking an extra gear could mean that Arsenal secure their first double of this millennium, and entrench the Swede in the club’s folklore. The pressure is on.
