Before we signed him, there were plenty of question marks around Viktor Gyokeres, with the biggest red flag being that at 27, he had only really had a decent 2-years in the Championship followed by a fruitful 2-years in Portugal.
The step up from the Portuguese league to the Premier League is huge, just ask Darwin Nunez. So no-one should really be too surprised of Gyorekes’ gol scoring struggles.
But where I am hopeful is that Gyorekes’ atttude is spot on. He is clearly working hard in training to adapt his game to Arsenal, to improve. And his attitude on the pitch is if someone who recognises that he can not just be a goal scorer.
The way he presses and run the channels both pushes defences backwards and creates space for others. It is no surprise that when he goes off, opponents defenders seem to have more time on the ball, can push up 10 yards which means the entire team has more attacking threat.
When you look around the Premier League, the lack of top strikers is frightening, Erling Haaand apart.
Igor Thiago is second on the scoring charts with 11, but if you watch Brentford you will see the Brazilian contributes nothing if he is not scoring goals.
Hugo Etikite (8 PL goals) is clearly a raw talent and is developing well, but he would have been huge risk in the summer of been signed as our first choice striker. Especially at his fee for his previous output.
Nick Woltermade has started wel at Newcastle with 7 PL goals. But he is very one dimensional. He reminds me of Peter Crouch that he will score 10-15 PL goals a season regardless of who he plays for.
Tha you come onto Joao Pedro with 6 Premier League goals. That is just one more tha Gyokeres. This is the Brazilian’s 4th year is a Premier League striker.
Meanwhile, Alexander Isak’s injury issues have continued. I can not tell you how pleased I was that we missed out on this one.
So we went for Gyokeres, and of the PL new boys he looks no worse than them. No better either. And he was the cheapest.
Calvert-Lewin, Mateta and Welbeck have all had spells of goal scoring form, but thESR are not the sort of profile we should have rem looking at.
The only other name is Ollie Watkins. But before his double against Chelsea he had just 3 PL goals. Now he has 5. The same as Gyokeres.
I am confident that the goals will come for Viktor. We just need to ensure us, the fans, stay positive so that he keeps his head up.
And with Gabriel Jesus back and Kai Havertz imminent return, we now have different options to ace different defences.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 