Viktor Gyokeres has endured a challenging week in which a major Sporting CP transfer twist emerged. On Tuesday evening, the Portuguese champions were handily beaten by Arsenal in the Champions League with Gyokeres failing to find the back of the net for just the fourth time all season.
William Saliba and Gabriel expertly handled Sporting's threat with the latter also on target in the 5-1 victory. Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard were the other scores with the Gunners securing a first away win in nearly a month.
While most were talking about Arsenal delivering such a statement victory, others were discussing what Gabriel Magalhaes did following his goal. After scoring from a corner, he pulled out Gyokeres' trademark celebration with Saka doing the same.
After the European tie, Gyokeres was asked about that with his answer seemingly a subtle jibe at Gabriel. "He's welcome to steal it if he can't create his own celebration," he told Via Play. "I didn't know he did that, but it's fun that he likes my celebration."
Following on from that, Gabriel has provided a response of his own by again pulling out the celebration after scoring from another corner in the 5-2 victory over West Ham. While that was taking place, Gyokeres was in the midst of a very difficult Saturday back at Jose Alvalade Stadium.
Fresh off losing at home for the first time in over a year against Arsenal, Sporting have now suffered back-to-back defeats on their own patch with Santa Clara beating them 1-0 in Portuguese league action. Alongside matters on the pitch, plenty regarding Gyokeres off the pitch has come to light.
Both Arsenal and Chelsea are interested in the Sweden international with a fresh development on his future emerging in the last few days. If he does move to one of those London clubs, both Brighton and Coventry City, as former clubs of Gyokeres', will receive a financial boost.
As previously reported by Coventry Live, the Sky Blues will pocket ten percent of the difference between the £20million they sold Gyokeres for and any fee Sporting receives. Coventry owner Doug King has now revealed that they will have to pay a significant amount of that to the Seagulls.
"That was a tough negotiation with Sporting Lisbon. If he does get moved on to another chapter in his career, then we'll benefit. We realise that a large part of anything that comes our way heads down to his original club at Brighton," he admitted in an interview with talkSPORT.
"Everybody seems to think it goes straight into the coffers, but these sell-ons accumulate down the chain, so you need to be bringing them up from your academy, hopefully, to get the full 100%, but a lot of it still goes down the chain."
Join the football.london Arsenal WhatsApp channel
Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
Join our Arsenal WhatsApp channel and get all the latest breaking news, opinion, podcasts and in-depth stories from football.london's dedicated Arsenal writers straight to your phone!
By following this free service you will be the first to know the news from the Emirates Stadium as it happens, when it happens.
To join our dedicated Arsenal channel, all you have to do is click this link and you can join thousands of others following our Gunners coverage!
If you're curious, you can check out our privacy policy here.