Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to use Sporting win as boost for Man City showdown
Arsenal Football Newsletter
It was hard not to feel sorry for Eberechi Eze at times during the latest stop on Arsenal's 'Grind it Out' tour.
This was his first start since the win over Bayer Leverkusen a month ago. That was the last time Arsenal showed any signs of attacking coherence and Eze was the one trying to recreate those past glories.
He ran at the Sporting defence with barely two minutes on the clock was blocked off, before then twisting his way along the byline to open up space.
There were some lovely drops of the shoulder, incisive passes into the box, and intricate touches. The brutal truth, though, is that much of it felt for nothing.
Gyokeres was not so much operating on a different wavelength but in a different world of technical quality to Eze
Viktor Gyokeres was not so much operating on a different wavelength but in a different world of technical quality.
Eze flicked one ball round the corner to Gyokeres on the edge of the area and spun in expectation of it being cushioned back into his path. Gyokeres' first-time touch back was badly overhit and booted away.
A minute later, the striker had space to drive into and Eze was completely free. By the time Gyokeres had eventually made the right decision to try and find him, he contorted his body to flick the ball with his right foot rather than use his left, and again it was easily cleared.
The theme continued into the second half, until Arteta had seen enough after ten more minutes. Gyokeres came off with 14 touches, five completed passes, and no successful carries to his name.
Kai Havertz came on in his place. Regardless of whether Mikel Arteta had initially planned that as a dry run for the Etihad or as a decision to keep Gyokeres fresh, it must be Havertz starting on Sunday afternoon.
Struggles: Viktor Gyokeres gets a talking-too from Mikel Arteta
That could also benefit Gyokeres, who has often been more effective when he has come off the bench and had space to exploit.
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Arsenal are an exhausted side right now. There were no wild celebrations at full-time in response to the club reaching consecutive Champions League semi-finals for the first time ever.
Declan Rice, who spent much of the previous 24 hours ill and yet was still dragged out to play 90 minutes, stood with a thousand-yard stare. Martin Zubimendi, run into the ground in his first season in England, did similarly.
The Gunners do not have the legs to take the game to City on Sunday. In this current moment, especially with the absentees, they are probably not good enough either.
The best hope of a result that would restore their control over the title race, then, is another spoiling job. To lean on their defensive superpower and do whatever it takes to leave Manchester unscathed.
Enter Havertz. With Arsenal certain to deploy those kinds of tactics, they need a presence up front to hold the ball and give the defence some sort of respite.
Gyokeres, strangely for his size, cannot do that. Playing with his back to goal is not his strength and it is easy to imagine the ball just bouncing off him at the Etihad, allowing City to sustain attacks.
It was noticeable how much better Arsenal were at seeing out their aggregate lead over Sporting after the changes were made. Havertz in particular, but also Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus, provided more technical security.
"With Viktor, I think the game required something else, another kind of No9 profile," Arteta said, explaining his substitution.
"So that we could keep the ball - there was no space to run - and Kai gave us that. He gave us a lot of consistency."
Havertz won three aerial duels in his 35 minutes on the pitch - Gyokeres won none. The German completed three times the number of passes, had seven more touches, and carried the ball successfully five times.
There were not huge signs of it here, but Havertz and Eze linked up nicely when starting together against Everton last month. There is a far more natural connection between the pair.
City stifled Arsenal with their press in the Carabao Cup final. They used a screen of four players and Arsenal had no success playing through it. With Gyokeres up front, there was no hope of playing over it either.
Arteta must learn the lessons from that - and really all that we have seen this season - to accept Gyokeres' limitations.
Arsenal have long since committed to a win-at-all-costs approach. The team selection must match those tactics on Sunday afternoon.