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By ISAAN KHAN, REPORTER
Published: 12:01 EST, 5 December 2025 | Updated: 12:17 EST, 5 December 2025
For the first time in months, Mikel Arteta can finally assess his Arsenal striker options without the anguish of knowing his hands are tied or his choices limited.
The long list of injured attackers that defined the Gunners’ previous campaign, and threatened to hurt them again this season, has dwindled - for now at least.
Kai Havertz’s impending return will restore a full complement of forwards for Arteta after the recent comebacks of Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus. And it will give the Gunners plenty of options. All different, but all threatening in their own right.
Here Daily Mail Sport reveals the different ways Arteta is planning to use his strikers for the rest of the campaign...
1. Kai Havertz as the No9
This is how the Gunners typically lined up last season before the German’s hamstring tear in February.
Havertz is a player for whom Arteta has a lot of affection, from both a professional and personal standpoint. Once he is fully fit - which is expected to be before Christmas - he is set to be the No1 option.
The forward will be eased back into the team slowly, having been out of competitive football for some time. Havertz has not played since sustaining a knee injury against Manchester United in Arsenal’s Premier League opener on August 17.
Kai Havertz will be eased back into the Arsenal team having been ruled out with a hamstring injury since August
Havertz is physically strong and able to bring his team-mates into the game through his skilled hold-up play
Like Gyokeres, he’s physically strong, which means he can bring his team-mates into the game through his hold-up play and is a handful in the area.
That strength has only been boosted during his four-month lay-off, Arteta saying Havertz has been breaking records in the gym. It’s understood that Arsenal are really excited by his return and how that added strength will give Arteta options.
Arsenal sources also say that in games where Havertz may not play as the striker, Arteta will try to find another role for him in the side. The club view Havertz as a regular supplier of goals and a match-winner; he scored 13 league goals in the 2023-24 campaign, and nine in the following season despite being out injured from February.
2. Viktor Gyokeres as the No9
The jury is still out on Gyokeres. There have been periods where he has drifted out of games.
In the season opener against United, the Swede made just nine passes and had no shots in an underwhelming start to his Gunners career. He also struggled against Manchester City in a game at the Emirates where he again failed to register a shot.
But in the games before his muscle injury last month, Gyokeres began to show signs of what is to come from him. Against Burnley, he had his best display for Arsenal, scoring with a header - but, just as promisingly, causing the opposition problems with his ability to bring team-mates into play. He ran into channels and pulled defenders out of position, which the Gunners exploited well.
Arteta views him as a striker to help break down low blocks, a primary reason as to why he was brought into this squad. It’s understood that Arteta has stressed to the team that they have to get better at seeing the runs Gyokeres makes and the spaces he takes up in the channels.
At the same time, he believes that Gyokeres has to adapt to the team’s way of playing, too. There is more to come from the striker.
Arsenal are still adapting to how striker Viktor Gyokeres plays - but he adds strength to the front line
Gyokeres had his best game yet against Burnley last month, scoring a header and causing the Clarets all sorts of problems, before picking up a muscle injury
3. Mikel Merino up front
Arsenal’s Swiss Army knife up front, Merino can do no wrong of late. He’s scoring for fun, having struck four goals and provided two assists in his last six matches. The 29-year-old’s 2025 goal tally is now at 21 for club and country.
Just like last season, when the Spaniard was shunted up top after injuries to Jesus and Havertz, scoring seven from February to the end of the campaign, Merino has more than filled Arsenal’s attacking void.
It’s understood that Arteta values the way he takes up positions which strikers don’t normally do - and will continue to consider him as the No1 choice for some games, even if Havertz and Gyokeres are available.
Merino drops so much deeper than an orthodox No9 because he’s used to falling back into his usual midfield spot. This creates confusion for central defenders who don't know whether to follow or stay put in the defensive line.
His movement also encourages others to run beyond him - creating a carousel of movement that is hard for the opposition to track.
He is lethal in the air: his midweek goal against Brentford was his eighth headed goal since the start of last season – no other Premier League player has scored more in that time.
Spanish midfielder Mikel Merino has been superb as a makeshift striker for Arsenal
Merino is superb in the air and offers an alternative way of playing to Mikel Arteta
4. Gabriel Jesus as striker
Injuries have been so cruel to the Brazilian. And before going off on a stretcher in Arsenal’s FA Cup third-round loss to United in January, he appeared to have finally caught a break.
He scored five goals across two matches against Crystal Palace last season, in the space of three days, and the 28-year-old looked to be at his attacking best. He displayed fast footwork, dribbling ability and clinical finishing - the attributes that tempted Arsenal to sign him from Manchester City in the summer of 2022.
Yet weeks later, he tore his ACL and only returned to training last month. It was not the forward’s first serious knee injury at the club. Jesus had knee surgery in December 2022, ruling him out of Brazil's World Cup campaign. He was out for 99 days that time. Since then, the striker has had follow-up procedures, causing him to miss further matches.
Arsenal view Jesus as behind both Havertz and Gyokeres in the pecking order, and possibly Merino depending on the opposition, but someone who has a role to play - particularly in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup.
It is said he can do things on the ball in training that other Arsenal players can’t due to his amazing technical ability. Jesus also has the ability to play out wide which gives Arteta a further option.
Gabriel Jesus has worked hard to get back fit following a horror run of injuries
Jesus scored five goals against Crystal Palace in the space of a few days last season
5. Leandro Trossard as false nine
Arteta turned to this ploy at the tail end of last season when he was left with so few attacking choices because of injuries.
Trossard stepped up, scoring four goals in the last eight league matches. And in the 2023-24 campaign, the Belgian scored five in that same period of matches while playing as a left winger.
Trossard, who has already struck five times and provided five assists across all competitions this season, is an option down the middle because of his finishing ability. It’s a ploy that could be used as a switch-up later in games.
In terms of starting as a false nine, it’s unlikely to happen. Arteta now has a plethora of options which would come before one that has only been turned to as a last-resort in the past.
Leandro Trossard has chipped in with some crucial goals for the Gunners, but usually when coming in from the wing
The Belgian has already struck five times and provided five assists across all competitions this season
6. Havertz and Gyokeres in same line-up
Both players have only been available together once for a competitive game at Arsenal - the opening match against United - so this ploy has yet to be properly tested.
In recent weeks, Arteta hinted that the two men could be used in the same line-up. One way is for the pair to go up front in a 4-4-2 formation, particularly late on in games to change things up. The Gunners play in a 4-3-3 formation so it’s highly unlikely to see the two strikers starting together in this set-up.
Another way is for Havertz to drop into left midfield - the position earmarked for the German when he arrived at the north London club - and Gyokeres to play as the striker. Havertz could be used as a No10, too.
It’s understood that Arteta prepared the ploy of Havertz and Gyokeres playing together during pre-season and can see the attackers combining well in the same line-up.