Mikel Arteta insists having all his strikers fit will be anything but a headache after spending so long having to cope without them.
With Viktor Gyokeres back from a hamstring issue and Gabriel Jesus building up valuable minutes this month following ACL surgery in January, the Spaniard already has two attacking options at his disposal. Add Mikel Merino – used as an auxiliary striker last season and continuing to impress this term – and Arteta has a bona fide third.
The final piece of the puzzle is Kai Havertz. After undergoing hamstring and knee surgeries, the Germany international has barely featured this calendar year, but is, in Arteta’s words, “progressing really well” and could return before the year is out.
Soon enough, the manager will have some tough decisions to make.
“So far in December, my headaches have come with having no options in the front line and no options in the back line. That’s the headaches,” he told his pre-Everton press conference.
“I haven’t had headaches the other way around. I hope that I do. It won’t be headaches. It will be difficult decisions, but they’re going to make the team better.
“The headaches are when you have to make decisions that you’re making the team weaker or you cannot make decisions because you’re going to expose other players or players that if you give them too much game time, probably they’re going to get injured as well. So that’s the headaches.”
When Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting Lisbon in the summer, the hope was the Sweden international would carry on his scarcely believable goalscoring form – 54 goals in 52 games last season, earning him UEFA’s Gerd Muller award.
There were flashes of his quality early on, but just as he looked to be getting up to full speed, he tweaked a hamstring against Burnley and spent a month sidelined. Since returning, he has looked a little lost, and with Jesus and Merino waiting in the wings, his place in the side is far from assured.
Asked to assess Gyokeres’ first five months at the club, Arteta said: “The level of attention on him hasn’t changed since he signed to today. That’s normal. Everybody was so excited to bring a nine into the club. We did it, we brought a player with an incredible scoring record that had to adapt to the league.
“He had no pre-season. The first few weeks were difficult because physically he wasn’t in his best state and he’s a player that needs that like any other player in this league almost to perform at that level. Then he kicked on. I think he had a really good period and he got injured.
“And now he’s back. But I saw a lot of positive things in the last two games that he’s done, we need to continue to tweak and understand him a little bit better in certain situations and he needs to do the same. But that’s about time. And we have full support for him.”
Barely a week goes by without a think piece dissecting what Gyokeres is doing right and wrong. It is a level of scrutiny he has never experienced, adding another layer of pressure on top of that which he places on himself.
Asked how the summer arrival is coping, and whether he has been taken by surprise by the focus on his performances, Arteta continued: “I don’t know. At the end you have to experience it.
“You can imagine the global impact that you’re going to have to deal with when you come to a big club and the expectations are as it is. But after you have to live it.
“And living it is always slightly different to your imagination. But he’s doing it with a lot of desire. I think his energy level, his commitment, it’s absolutely top. And we are here to help him because we’ve all been here. We all need time.
“There’s always moments and the strikers have moments. They score more goals, less goals. And we need to be there for him.”
In the meantime, Merino remains a genuine alternative to lead the line. Having stepped up during last season’s injury crisis, the dependable Spaniard has again shown his threat in the box, with five goals and three assists in 23 appearances.
“He’s certainly an option [up front],” said Arteta. “I think he’s given us every reason as well to consider him in a really serious way. You look at the goals that he’s scored and the importance of those goals, I think he needs to be right up there.”
As for whether Merino is a more natural fit for Arsenal’s playing style than Gyokeres, Arteta added: “I don’t know if this is the word, but he’s a player that has done a job with his qualities and in the games that we demanded his qualities.
“Viktor brings many other different ones and it’s great that we can have those. And now Gabi [Jesus] as well – he came in the last two games and made an impact in the game.”