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The striker scored his first goal in almost a month during the 3-2 Carabao Cup semi-final win over Chelsea, with Jamie Redknapp offering an explanation on his struggles.
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli’s positions are a major part of Viktor Gyokeres’ struggles with Arsenal this season, according to Jamie Redknapp.
Gyokeres completed a move to Arsenal in the summer, with a lot of excitement given his goalscoring record with Sporting CP. He has, however, struggled to replicate it in an Arsenal shirt.
In his 25 appearances in all competitions so far this season, the striker has scored eight goals. The latest came in Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Chelsea in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, that goal was his first since December.
The Swedish international has been criticised from some pundits over his performances, most notably from Gary Neville.
Following his goal against Chelsea, Redknapp offered an explanation as to why Gyokeres may be finding it more difficult to be as effective for Arsenal as he was for Sporting.
Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: “I can’t lie, I wasn’t watching him at Sporting every week, but I would imagine the crosses he would have been getting with the system they played, with two wing-backs.
"Predominantly, it would have been a right-footed right wing-back and a left-footed left wing-back, so he gets crosses. Once that ball gets wide, they’re coming into him and he knows he can make that first run across the post and get in there.
“When he plays for Arsenal, the major problem is Bukayo Saka plays on the right, he’s left-footed, Martinelli the same, he want to cut back on his right foot. So when Bukayo Saka gets into that position to start with, instead of firing it across the face he want to chop back, so that’s where the frustration comes from.”
Following the 0-0 draw with Liverpool earlier this month, Mikel Arteta moved to defend Gyokeres, seemingly backing up Redknapp’s view.
“He was in great position sometimes the ball didn't arrive,” he said.
“As I said there was a situation, normally we're going to the six yard box almost with the ball in the feet, and normally that's a goal, you pick somebody and you score a goal, and we didn't do that, and that's the thing today, we have to improve, apart from the thing we did in the second half, that it wasn't probably at the standards that we are used to.”
Gyokeres will hope to take confidence from the goal against Chelsea when he and Arsenal return to action this weekend. The Gunners travel to the East Midlands to take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, with Gyokeres on the scoresheet in the reverse fixture back in September when Arsenal won 3-0.
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