Thoughts on Arsenal signing Viktor Gyökeres

Arsenal have signed striker Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting on a five-year deal. I’ll get it out of the way and share that my preferred striker choice would have been Benjamin Sesko. I wanted Sesko 18 months ago when we were initially linked with him, I wanted us to sign him in the January window, and I truly wanted us to sign him this summer as the striker to lead our attack moving forward. I think Sesko, at 22, has all of the qualities to become a world-class striker and also make an impact now. It seemed so close! Instead, Arsenal have turned to 27-year-old Viktor Gyökeres to lead the attack and be the 20+ Premier League goal scorer we have missed since Aubameyang. Hmmm. I’m not enthusiastic about it. Certainly, not as much as others who make the argument that Arsenal need a mature, experienced, penalty box poacher vs a younger, freak athlete, all-around striker when making a case for signing Gyökeres vs Sesko. Fair points, and ones I won’t refute now that it appears Gyökeres will be the guy. There are things that I like about him and believe he will add to the team.

GOALS. How long have we been crying out for an elite goal scorer? Gyökeres will add double-digit goals to a team that creates a decent amount of chances but hasn’t had someone ruthless in front of the goal to convert them. If Gyökeres is anything, he’s a hardworking goal poacher who will be hungry to score goals and get shots off to make an impression on his new teammates as a reliable source. Saka should especially benefit from being a ruthless runner and ball striker to finish off crosses and cut-backs towards the penalty area. It will also be interesting to see who now takes the penalties. Not that we draw that many penalties anyway, but Saka has been taking them for the last 3 seasons. Enter Gyökeres with his own excellent penalty conversion stats converting 19/19 last season, which tied the European record for the most penalties scored across the top ten leagues in one season since 2000. Impressive, and given his ball striking ability alone, my vote would be to put Gyökeres on penalties moving forward. Arsenal have needed a selfish goal scorer for years, so he fits the bill and comes with a personality that should add more bite to the team. I’m on board for adding all of those qualities.

I deliberately left a number off the expected goals tally earlier because I don’t think he will be a 20+ goal scorer in the Premier League. I don’t think he’s a good enough footballer to hit those numbers despite how many chances we create. Players that typically score that many goals in the PL are good all-around players that can score various goals, and create for themselves and others. That’s not Gyökeres‘s game, nor does he play with much finesse and agility, so I expect more scrappy, tap-in, blue-collar goals, many of which he will create for himself through sheer determination. That determination will likely also be frustrating at times because they are unlikely to be spectacular. But, hey, all goals count the same in the end (we just could have potentially had all of the above and much more with Sesko). So, if I am going to put a predicted number on Gyökeres‘ Premier League goal-scoring numbers, I will say 17. That probably sounds harsh, and that I’m low on him, and maybe I am, but that’s good enough to be the best goal output out of any Arsenal player in the past 3 seasons (beating Saka by 1 goal from the 2023/2024 season). I simply don’t see an elite overall footballer when I watch Gyökeres. I see a quick, elite ball striker who had more space to run into against the best teams in the Portuguese League than he will against the worst teams in the Premier League. I’m more nervous now that he plays for my team about what he has the skills to do when Premier League defenders and coaches are scheming for him week in and week out.

My last point on the Gyökeres signing will be this. This supposed elite talent and goal scorer has somehow made it to 27 years old and has only played professionally for Brighton, Swansea City, Coventry City, and Sporting CP….what??? Never played in a top 5 league? Our only alleged competition for his signature was against Man United, who came 15th last season, don’t have Champions League football, but do now have his past coach in Amorim, the year he still said no to. However, this signing is clearly for the here and now, in his prime, to hopefully provide an immediate impact towards winning. It aligns with many of the other signings this summer of players in their prime that should be more ready to contribute immediately. That’s a fair approach after Arsenal have been so close to winning major trophies for 3 years. Gyökeres is now a Gunner, so I, of course, want him to do incredibly well and hope he proves me wrong.