A few weeks ago, there were numerous reports saying that Arsenal were scouting Viktor Gyokeres in anticipation of deciding whether or not to sign him. Gyokeres had minor surgery in the summer, which justified Arsenal’s cautious approach before signing him.
But over the last two Primeira Liga match days, the Swedish hitman has more than proven his worth and continued his prolific form from last season. Last weekend, he assisted and scored as Sporting CP defeated Rio Ave 3-1 in their season opener. On Saturday night, the 26-year-old was back at it. He played the entire 90 minutes as Sporting beat Nacional 6-1; he scored two goals and was close to adding a third in the closing stages of the game, had his shot not hit the crossbar.
As Arsenal completes the Mikel Merino deal, they will focus on strengthening their attack before the transfer deadline. If they have been paying attention, Gyokeres’ performances for Sporting are urging them to sign him.
Mikel Arteta is comfortable with Kai Havertz spearheading their attack, but passing on the Gyokeres transfer opportunity this summer, which would only strengthens Arsenal, will undoubtedly set the club up for a difficult transfer war for the Swede next year.
Gyokeres, currently enjoying a run of three goals and an assist in two games, is a valuable investment that a team may not regret. If Arsenal can afford him, they should sign him up now.
Sam P
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Undoubtedly need to sign.
I think for £65m it is possible.
Havertz has 1 goal and 1 assist in one game against premier league opposition
So we should just rely solely on Havertz all season? This obsession with only agreeing on what Arteta decides on is getting silly. Havertz regularly misses easy shots, that’s the concern, you can see Arteta’s frustration on the bench when it happens. Havertz has proven to be a decent acquisition that can help in several attacking positions but acting like a top striker with a great all round game isn’t going to massively improve us as a team is ludicrous. It could be the difference between repeating the last two seasons and finally surpassing City. All we’ve done this summer is strengthen LB and finally replace Xhaka (if Merino comes in), we need a little extra if we want to really push a City side that is simply world class throughout.
The issue is if you use Havertz stats at Cf for us. Not the games he played left 8. He has more G/A than games played. So in essence Havertz is a top CF. Next question who is this top striker with all round game because I certainly cant see one. Isak maybe but he might be better than Havertz at finishing but Havertz is better technically. Havertz is better than both Victors with the ball at his feet and has proved it in the premier league. No guarantee either Victor will be able to cope with the intensity and quality of our league. The man who could replace Havertz at cf for us would be Wirtz and yet again hes a midfielder with an eye for goal. City won yesterday 2-0 with Halaand only scoring one like our big german, the German also got an assist. The big German also harried the opposition and won the ball back numerous times in dangerous postions apart from the goal i barely remember Haland having a part to play
True, but I don’t think we should be basing Arsenal’s transfer planning for strikers on one (albeit good) performance by Havertz on Saturday. After all, if you extrapolate those extremely limited stats across the season, he would be one of the greatest strikers in PL history. I’m not sure how likely that really is.
As it happens, Haaland also scored yesterday so the same conclusion could be reached about him (on the basis of a single game) as well. However, if push comes to shove, I know which one of the two is more likely to accomplish that – and it isn’t Havertz, good though I’m sure he’ll be in 2024-25.
Adding a proven striker (to Havertz and the other goal scorers across the team) would add that extra “insurance” in my opinion. Getting one now less than two weeks left is another matter though.
Bertie
I think the stats for Havertz actually should be based on his last ten games, not just one. I’m sure someone will be happy to provide the exact stats from the end of last season. And, to be fair, if he carries on that form through the whole season, he WILL break records.
Nothing is guaranteed but the Big German is on an amazing run of form indeed…
Well, we’ll see. I hope as we all do that Havertz becomes the top striker Arsenal really needs, and he’s on a good run over the last ten games, but we won’t know really until we’ve seen what he can do over the whole 2024-25 season – and that’s still the big “if” here, isn’t it.
The potential problem is that regardless of the number of games used to judge now, with the window closing soon it will be too late to do anything about it should he not turn out to be quite the scoring success that we all hope.
That’s why I still think Arsenal should at least try to secure the services of a proven striker in what remains of the transfer window. They probably won’t succeed given said time constraint and general speed of their transfer negotiations, but it’s still worth a go in my opinion to add not perhaps a cast-iron guarantee, but a layer of “insurance”.
i agree we could use an attacking addition ‘layer of insurance’
£80m to £100m for Gyrokeres or Osimhen are too expensive and would expect to start vs being a back-up option from the bench, i.e. replace Havertz up top not understudy for him
i just don’t see Arteta/Edu dismantling their system and dressing room for that
‘layer of insurance’ likely to be younger, developing, ego for the bench, and lot less expensive – who knows, may be Edu/Arteta have that surprise up their sleeve after Merino completed…
…so I do see the possibility of an incoming forward, but very difficult to see that being either Gyrokeres or Osimhen…
…and zero chance of the so called ‘proven 25 PL goal per season’ striker because outside Haaland they simply don’t exist!
Clearly Arsenal won’t get a Haaland MkII but there are experienced strikers around (whether they’re affordable to Arsenal is another matter) that could get 20+ goals a season for us -although nothing is be guaranteed (including with Havertz, of course).
I doubt Arsenal will go for Osimhen because I suspect his sights are set elsewhere – PSG – if he leaves Napoli (with a bigger wage than Arsenal could or would sanction). As for Gyrokeres, he’s an odd one because although he’s quite prolific there doesn’t appear to be any real interest in him (to the degree of bids made) yet. I would have thought that there would be at least a few clubs interested since the window opened on 14 June.
And you believe gyokeres is a proven striker…… Tell that to Liverpool fans….
He has six goals and five assist in his last ten games, information you may find useful.
Good stuff indeed, but who knows how long he’ll maintain that. If, for whatever reason, he doesn’t then we’re back to Jesus (15 goals/54 games in total) or, possibly, Eddie if he hasn’t left (19 goals/116 games in total). I know there are goals elsewhere in the team but …
There’s a lot riding on Havertz in this key season for Arsenal. I think they need to try and lighten his burden if they can. After all, the thing with insurance is that you never need it, until you do need it, but you can’t get it retrospectively.
Havertz has 17 goal involvements in 14 games as a striker for the Gunners (nine goals, eight assists).
I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my views are the team cohesion is strengthened by sharing the goal scoring responsibilities. Although, if we do sign a striker, I would hope it would be someone who is grounded and a team player.
Having a striker who will want all the limelight will only cause disruption in the camp. Gyokeres seems like that grounded striker, however as mentioned I would be happy with everyone chipping in on the goal scoring, it brings the team closer in my opinion.
Arteta’s plan for more goals this season is to get our lefthand side firing again, replicate our magic righthand side of Odegaard/Saka/White, with Merino/Martinelli/Calafiori, if able to do that then 10 extra goals (or more) from the left is doable but also could benefit our righthand triangle too as teams will no longer be able to double team on the right, so potentially increases righthand side goal productivity too
also, as often pointed out, Havertz 13 PL goals last year came in half a season at centre-forward, and 7 assists, that is a lot of goal involvements when extrapolated to a whole season
the combination of a reinvigorated lefthand side, more productive righthand side and full season at centre forward could easily add 15 or more goals
remember if new striker comes in we lose Havertz goals at centre forward, you can’t have both
i agree an extra attacking option would be great, someone who can play across the front three, and young enough and ego that they will be coming off the bench much of the time
and of course less than £80m to £100m of a Gyrokeres or Osimhen who also don’t fit the other profile attributes
an example might be Joao Pedro currently at Brighton who also brings PL proven experience (vs one season in Portgual and 3 year underwhelming years in the Championship)
Arsenal realy need a top striker like Viktor Gyokeres to win them more matches and as well as a silverware. Then Havertz can play the role of a no. 10 in the central midfield which is currently freed due to Smith Rowe departure.
the shirt #10 is vacated, but not position #10
arguably in Arteta’s standard 4-3-3 system Arsenal don’t play a traditional #10 at all, more like a pair #8’s, i.e. Odegaard (right attacking midfield) and Rice (left attacking midfield) either side of Partey (defensive midfield)
the whole traditional number thing is probably a bit outdated these days, especially in Arteta system and out-of-possession positioning vs in-possession etc
viktor Gyokeres is the striker that we need at the club, two chances, one behind the net. we should not struggle again for goal. when we still has a chance to get a good striker. who will lift us to next level and with the trophies. Kai Havertz is not bad but we need more advanced striker. thx
Arsenal And Arteta Need To Sign A Pure Striker And A Right Wing Forward It They Do Not Want To Come Short Again. They Need Raphinha To Complement Saka And Gyokeres To Bring In The Goals Like Haaland For City. If They Don’t Address This Issue, I Am Definitely Sure Arsenal Will Be Third Time Unlucky.
All were saying is a goal scorer of 25 goal and above a season league can win us trophies and not shield not carabao/facup the tally must be met at the end of season if not all you and arteta not supporting getting a striker will be tag enemy of progress
All were saying is a goal scorer of 25 goal and above a season league can win us trophies and not shield not carabao/facup the tally must be met at the end of season if not all you and arteta not supporting getting a striker will be tag enemy of progress
only Haaland and Kane have scored 25 league goals in season in the last 10 years, very easy to say >25 goals is only option but not easy to do
the last mega money striker from Portuguese league was Nunez, a repeat for Arsenal guarantees we lose the league (as scoring less than our current #9) and we have no money left and stuck with a dud on a big contract, e.g. Lukaku
most big money strikers fail to score 25 PL goals than achieve it
Arsenal are more likely to get the 10 extra goals by reinvigorating our lefthand side, at least Martinelli has PL proven track record of 15 in a season before, if he can do that again then we have the extra goals without risking our current record goal scoring strikeforce – remember Havertz goes out for >25 goal striker to come in, we lose Havertz goals and assists so not >25 extra goals, may be 10 maximum, with the very real risk they do a Nunez or Lukaku and not just miss the >25 PL goal target but score less than Havertz
Numerous Premier League Clubs watched Gyokeres when he played for Coventry, and yet not one put in an offer for him before he moved to Portugal for around 14m?Has he suddenly improved dramatically or is the fact that he plays for a relatively strong team in a weak League a material factor to consider.The guy is a good player who is probably worth around 25/30m at best and certainly nowhere near the 60/80m mooted in certain quarters.
Havertz’s conversion rate is 20 percent but it could improve this season. Gyokeres conversion rate is 25 percent which is good even if it drops a little it still might be good Haaland is at 24 percent from last season I think Isak is at 22 percent Mbappe is at 26 percent
very interesting stats, Havertz is not far behind Haaland and Isak is just fractionally ahead, and Havertz conversion rate could be impacted by his time spent in midfield, i.e. i bet 20% is top of the charts for a midfielder
so if true what is this whole clinical striker talk as we have one, and also one that provides double the assists of the other two
Gyokeres 25% in Portuguese league is not comparable and infact rather disappointing as would expect PL level defenders to make a big dent in that