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The Premier League's opening weekend saw contrasting fortunes for Viktor Gyokeres and Hugo Ekitike following their big-money summer arrivals.
Liverpool's summer acquisition Ekitike kicked off the 2025/26 Premier League season in style on Friday, bulldozing through Bournemouth's defence to score the first goal of the campaign. The 23-year-old shone under the Anfield floodlights, setting up Cody Gakpo for a goal before making way for Curtis Jones after 72 minutes of play.
In contrast, Gyokeres had a less than stellar debut against Manchester United on Sunday. The Swedish forward, who joined Arsenal from Sporting CP, failed to leave his mark at Old Trafford. After an hour of play, Mikel Arteta decided to replace him with Kai Havertz.
To be fair to Gyokeres, making your Premier League debut away at Manchester United is no easy task. Considering the 27-year-old hasn't had much of a pre-season due to waiting for the Gunners to seal the deal, a slow start was perhaps inevitable, reports Football London.
Data from BOYLE Sports provides an interesting insight into how Ekitike and Gyokeres performed on their debuts. Ekitike, who is priced at 14/1 to finish as the top scorer this season, completed 21 passes, took four shots (two on target), and also provided the assist for Gakpo's first-half goal.
Gyokeres, conversely, managed just nine passes and failed to register a single shot on target, created no chances and was largely anonymous throughout. Indeed, Gyokeres managed only 22 touches and Arteta will be hoping the striker can rediscover his form swiftly at Emirates Stadium.
When asked for his assessment of Gyokeres, Arteta said: "Well, he did a lot of things very good. You can tell, especially in our high-pressing rhythm that we demand that, especially in the first hour. Again, he took too much time.
"It's something that we have to work on him, especially there. And then, yeah, finalising situation, he didn't have that many chances to do that because, as I said, on the previous action, before we had to play that last ball that the line was standing still with 40 meters behind, we then managed to put the ball through to exploit his quality. But overall, I mean, coming away to Manchester United, winning your first game with Arsenal, it's a good start."
Arsenal welcomes Leeds United to Emirates Stadium on Saturday and one would imagine that represents the ideal fixture for Gyokeres to discover some rhythm. T
he Swede did net 52 goals across all competitions for Sporting last season and will be eager to open his account for his new club as quickly as possible to settle any potential concerns.
Ekitike, who also found the back of the net against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield, is expected to be in Arne Slot's starting line-up against Newcastle next Monday, with hopes of increasing his goal count.
It will indeed be intriguing to see whether Gyokeres or Ekitike ends up having the more successful season by May.
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