There had been a sense long before this summer that the missing piece for Arsenal would be a new centre-forward, with Mikel Arteta's side falling agonisingly short in the title race in recent seasons.
Well, here we are in December, with the Gunners sitting pretty atop the Premier League and Champions League tables, following an imperious start to 2025/26.
Whether it is a positive or not, that early-season form has been maintained even amid further turbulence in the centre-forward ranks, with Arteta calling on his trusty makeshift striker, Mikel Merino, perhaps more than would have been expected.
The Spaniard has scored five times across all competitions, four of which have come in 11 games as a number nine, although as his early withdrawal against Aston Villa showcased, this experiment shouldn't creep into becoming the norm.
Gyokeres vs Brugge
Indeed, the north London side, even for all their relentless quality this term, are in need of new man Viktor Gyokeres to step up to the plate - he's hardly hitting the heights of those who came before him.
How Gyokeres' start at Arsenal compares to Aubameyang
Fresh from netting 97 goals in just 102 games for Sporting CP across the last two seasons, Gyokeres - signed for a fee of around £63.5m - looked like he would be that final piece of the puzzle as the spearhead of Arteta's attacking unit.
Gyokeres 2024-25 season in numbers (timeless) (1)
With the absence of Kai Havertz also handing the Swede the benefit of a clear route to regular game time, the one-time Coventry City man - even while facing his own fitness woes - appeared to have no excuses for a slow start.
Frustratingly, however, things have not quite gone to plan, with Arsenal's marquee summer arrival scoring just six times across all competitions, only four of which have come in the top-flight.
That record is certainly not woeful, but considering his previous record in Portuguese football, there was an expectation that he would hit the ground running.
For comparison, too, the last truly prolific striker to grace the Emirates, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was an instant hit from his move from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018, with the then-28-year-old perhaps dealt an even tougher hand considering he made the switch mid-season.
Aubameyang's Arsenal record (timeless)
Those first six months saw the Gabonese speedster net ten times and register four assists in just 13 league outings, with his only other appearances in 2017/18 coming in the Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City.
Gyokeres' first 13 league games have seen him score six fewer goals, while failing to register a single assist, with the jury still out on whether he can ever reach the heights of the 92-goal Aubameyang.
Gyokeres vs Auba - First 13 PL games
Stat (*per game)
Games
Starts
Goals
Big chances missed
Goal conversion
Assists
Key passes*
Touches*
Total duels won*
Stats via Sofascore
The 27-year-old, in his defence, isn't the only issue facing Arteta, however, with another key lieutenant now in danger of creeping into late-stage Aubameyang territory.
Arteta needs to ditch his new Aubameyang
As explored above, Gyokeres' form is reason for concern, albeit with the Sweden international merely months into his Emirates stay, it's far too early to judge him too harshly just yet.
gyokeres
The same, however, cannot be said of the man who replaced Aubameyang as captain, Martin Odegaard, with the Norwegian's lack of impact over an extended period now beginning to cause a major issue.
Now, there is no suggestion that the Norwegian has been afflicted by the off-field issues which tainted Aubameyang's final days at the club, prior to being shown the door by Arteta, although like his former teammate, his status as skipper should be called into question.
The former Real Madrid star's repeated injury woes are also hardly something that can be levelled at him, yet even when he has been fit and available, the left-footer has barely come close to his former heights.
On a reported salary of £240k-per-week - just shy of the £250k-per-week that Aubameyang took home in his final season in north London - Odegaard ranks among the highest earners right now, but his performance levels do not match that lofty status.
Odegaard-Arsenal
In 12 games this season, the 26-year-old is yet to score, while providing just two assists. That follows a particularly forgettable 2024/25 campaign, which yielded three goals and eight assists in the Premier League.
That isn't necessarily a dismal return, although the player once hailed as the best in the league by Manchester United's Luke Shaw is far from his prior peak, having registered 19 league goal involvements in 2023/24, after registering 22 the season before that.
Odegaard-Arsenal
Against Aston Villa last weekend, for instance, the decision to start Odegaard, and relocate Eberechi Eze on the left flank, simply backfired for the Gunners boss, with his struggling skipper losing the ball 15 times, while losing seven duels on the day.
Again, he may not have fallen from favour under the Spaniard, far from it, but he is echoing Aubameyang in seeing his impact dwindle season after season.
In the case of the current Marseille man, his final full season saw him score just ten league goals, while he only scored four top-flight goals at the start of 2021/22 - a way off his 22-goal pomp in both 2019/20 and 2018/19.
That decline, and the baggage that came with it, saw Arteta ruthlessly cast off his captain to help continue that transition of turning Arsenal into an elite force again.
Martin Odegaard
The circumstances might be somewhat different with regard to his successor, although Odegaard is another high-earning, yet struggling skipper who might well finally need to be shown the door.
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