Arsenal's Viktor Gyokeres celebrates scoring their second goal with Piero Hincapie and Gabriel Magalhaes
Arsenal have no intention of allowing striker Viktor Gyokeres to leave the club amid reported interest. The striker arrived at the Emirates Stadium on a £64million deal from Sporting CP last summer after a saga that lasted weeks, and he went on to scored 21 goals across all competitions, including 14 Premier League goals and five more in the Champions League.
That was a solid contribution from the striker, even if his scoring form was naturally better in Portugal, where the competition is typically of a lesser quality. But many feel there is more to come from Gyokeres, and others have shown concern that he is not the elite goalscorer Arsenal need in their front line.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
Then again, that would be working under the assumption that Mikel Arteta wants an elite goalscorer. It's nice to have one, but the Spaniard is much more concerned with how a striker plays within his system, and indeed how they enable the system to work.
Like Kai Havertz, Gyokeres fits the system well, and if he didn't, Arsenal likely wouldn't have won the Premier League title last season, given he was largely the starting striker.
"Viktor has been working extremely hard, the level of demands he puts on himself are incredibly high. He always wants to learn, he's always asking questions, he always wants to do extra things." - Mikel Arteta
There have been some whispers that Barcelona are interested in Gyokeres this summer, but while those rumours do not appear to be truthful in any case, Arsenal seem to have no intention of selling regardless.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano said on his YouTube show: "The feeling at Arsenal is that Viktor Gyokeres is going to stay, is that Mikel Arteta is happy. Mikel Arteta believes that Arsenal need a player like Viktor Gyokeres in the squad for his skills - last season he was scoring a lot of goals. And also, not just in terms of numbers, in terms of contributions, Arsenal are convinced that the second season in the Premier League is going to be different. So, Arsenal are very optimistic about Viktor Gyokeres."
Gyokeres' first Premier League season in stats
Appearances: 36
Goals: 14
Assists: 1
Aerial duals won: 0.8 per game
Shots: 1.5 per game
Pass success: 62.4%
Arteta has backed Gyokeres
Viktor Gyokeres
Arteta has been very complimentary of Gyokeres, and he said back in May: "Some of the things you see, certain improvements from players probably the work has not been the day before or two days before, it has been done through months. It doesn't happen overnight," "Viktor has been working extremely hard, the level of demands he puts on himself are incredibly high. He always wants to learn, he's always asking questions, he always wants to do extra things.
"He is always trying to find ways to find connections with his team-mates whether that is in the canteen, in the dressing room or on the pitch. At the end, when you have that kind of behaviour you get rewards."
Victor Osimhen
Victor Osimhen