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Viktor Gyokeres endured a tough start to his Arsenal career but he's beginning to show promising form
It may be a push to imagine Viktor Gyokeres becoming the goalscorer Thierry Henry was at Arsenal, yet he is following a similar timeline.
The Swede is not the only Arsenal No.14 to struggle to meet expectations in his first six months at the club. Back in the 1999–2000 season, Henry endured a spell of form that would see him become the poster boy for “foreign imports needing time to adjust to the Premier League”.
Nobody was calling him a future Hall of Famer or club record scorer. Gyokeres has been judged just as quickly. It took Henry until the first Saturday in February to reach eight league goals, the same mark Gyokeres is on after his double against Sunderland.
Asked about his struggles earlier in the season, the Gunners hitman said: “I think it’s a lot of things. If you change everything in your life, you have to adapt quickly. It is a challenge.
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"We kept winning games, which was the most important thing, but you want to be at your best as well. You keep believing in doing the right things.”
Henry had plenty to deal with. The 1998 World Cup winner was a 22-year-old converting from winger to striker while shaking off the stigma of being a Juventus flop.
In some ways, the weight on 27-year-old Gyokeres has been greater. Henry joined a team just a season removed from doing the Double under Arsene Wenger.
Gyokeres arrived from Sporting Lisbon as the £64m missing piece – the striker expected to deliver the goals that lift Mikel Arteta’s side from three-times runners-up to champions.
Henry needed eight league games to break his duck for the Gunners. Gyokeres’ longest goalless run this season is seven games. That kind of spell can cause strikers to change routines or watch videos of them scoring goals.
But Gyokeres revealed: “How you deal with things depends on how you are as an individual. For me, it was trying to do the same things and not change too much because it has worked before. The most important thing is to keep believing in yourself.”
Henry would finish his debut campaign like a train with nine goals in his final seven league games. How the Gunners would love Gyokeres to do that.
Well, after Martin Zubimendi curled in the 42nd-minute opener with the outside of his right boot, Gyokeres came off the bench to finish the Black Cats off.
He took one touch in the box before blasting in his first of the afternoon on 66 minutes. Then he was handed a tap-in by Gabriel Martinelli in injury time. Gyokeres now has six goals in eight games in all competitions since the turn of the year.
A timely contribution that has helped put Arsenal top of two tables and in the Carabao Cup final and coming after public criticism from Gary Lineker.
The former World Cup Golden Boot winner said Gyokeres’ movement in the box was reactionary, more like a defender than a striker. Asked about that assessment, the Gunners’ top scorer calmly sought clarification before humbly stating: “I can always improve things.
"I am not a complete player. I am not the best in every aspect. I think it’s a good feeling to know you can always do better.”
With that attitude, Gyokeres may yet deliver on expectations and be the man to lift Arteta’s Arsenal over the line.
English (US) ·