Viktor Gyokeres
Viktor Gyokeres
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Form does not always announce itself at the training ground. Sometimes it turns up somewhere else, in a different shirt, with a different set of problems to solve, and the only evidence that matters is the scoreline. A player who has been waiting can look like a different footballer once the minutes are his again.
That is the awkward truth of an international break. It can empty a squad, or it can hand someone the games he has not been getting. Goals away from home do not guarantee a place on Saturday. They do change the mood he brings back with him.
Confidence is a thin thing for a centre forward. It is built on chances taken, not on chances watched from the bench, and it tends to travel better than any tactical note. A week of scoring is not a solution. It is a reason to be selected.
Viktor Gyokeres is returning to Arsenal in that mood. The 28-year-old scored the winner as Sweden beat Romania 1-0 in Bucharest on Monday night, and he found the net in all four of Sweden’s Nations League matches.
That run has put Graham Potter’s side top of Group B4, and it has made Gyokeres the first player in the competition’s history to score in seven games in a row. Three of his four latest goals came from inside the six-yard box.
A list of players to score in seven straight Nations League games:
– Viktor Gyokeres
End of list. https://t.co/zHGOYXVrgt
— now.arsenal (@now_arsenaI) October 5, 2026
It is not the first time a break has suited him. In March he scored four times in the World Cup play-offs, including a hat-trick against Ukraine, as Sweden reached North America. Before the 3-0 defeat at Brighton, Mikel Arteta had already suggested a change of scene might help. “He scored a few goals [last time]. That’s what a striker needs, they need minutes and goals to boost their energy.”
The break has been kinder to him than to others. Kai Havertz and Christos Tzolis both picked up hamstring problems with Germany and Greece, and Arsenal are already light in attack with games coming quickly. Gyokeres has yet to start a Premier League match this season, and his longer-term place is still debated amid interest in Julian Alvarez and Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi. He was signed for the here and now.
Saturday’s lunchtime meeting with Leeds is the first chance to show it. He scored three times against them last season. He may not offer the link play Arteta has had from Havertz, but he occupies defenders, and former Arsenal midfielder Kim Kallstrom, now Sweden’s Director of Professional Football, said as much after Bucharest. “Viktor has an incredibly physical playing style and physical attributes that are probably very difficult for defenders to work against. “It’s always a physical battle up there, because his playing style is based a lot on that. So he’s going to get beat up quite a bit, unfortunately.”
He has the marks to prove it. Blood-stained socks after the 3-1 win over Poland, and a night on an ice pack rather than a pillow after an elbow to the head against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica. He comes back ready to be used, at a point when Arteta may need him more than he has all season.