Almost immediately the knives were being sharpened at Sky Sports and Talk Sport with a raft of has-been and never-have-been pundits (gas bags) giving out their ‘unbiased’ opinions on the brand new Arsenal hit man. It seemed odd to me at the time, but not surprising, that there wasn’t anything like the intensity of debate, interest and discussion around the values placed on Isak, Sesko, Eketike and Wirtz, all of them considerably more expensive than Gyokeres.
Maybe Liverpool and Manchester United signing forwards isn’t as big a story as when Arsenal sign a striker?
After a slow start and a number of disappointing returns, the clamour grew – ‘waste of money’, ‘can’t do it in the Premier League’ and everyone’s favourite ‘flat track bully’ which ironically was just what Arsenal needed. Those of us of a certain vintage can remember an few Arsenal forwards starting slowly and also attracting uninformed criticism before eventually becoming top quality strikers/finishers. Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry obviously spring immediately to mind and Frank Stapleton, for those of us who remember black and white television. It isn’t new.
I’m not going to lie, there has been occasions when I’ve had a few reservations myself about Viktor after some of his earlier matches where he’d not been as influential, but ultimately I’m more happy when he scores for Arsenal than anyone else because I know how it affects those bad actors in the football media, watching them struggling to swallow humble pie really is quite delicious.
Of course a few of the more extreme voices in the television media will point and earnestly claim that he cannot do it against the really big teams, you know that he can only really score against the minnows, the likes of Kairat, Inter Milan, Burnley, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Tottenham!
Well at this moment Viktor has 10 goals in the Premier League, 4 goals in the Champions League and 1 goal in the League Cup, a grand total of 15 goals including 3 pens. That’s what I expected from him for this entire first season in the EPL given the increased physicality of the Premier League, the higher quality of defenders and his unfamiliarity with his new team mates and them having to adapt to a totally different attacking apex.
It’s been a bit stop start with Viktor seeming to score in bursts but he brings a bullishness to our attack. Defenders hate him, he thrives on the contact, the duels and his presence ensures that opponents find it difficult to compress Arsenal into our own half, keeping the game more stretched. You can see the difference when he is substituted because we then find our defence dropping deeper, encouraging the opposition to pin us back. Against Tottenham he stayed on and it was him that scored the late goal rather than Arsenal conceding as had been the case recently.
The brief glimpse of Viktor linking up with Kai Havertz gave us an entirely new and exciting view into what our attack could eventually look like when our German maestro finally shakes off those niggling injuries. Hopefully with a fully fit Kai Havertz and an energised Viktor Gyokeres leading our attack, the next three months could be truly memorable?
We march on…
By Kev.
I haven’t checked the facts but the subject in the Kings Arms in Blackstock Road has been aired a few times. One of the guys made a comment that I found interesting , he said Vik’s more dangerous when Odegaard has been injured .
Certainly I can remember that his linking with Havertz seemed to help him turn things around and more recently with Eze .
His second goal against Tottenham came from an Odegaard pass , maybe the penny has dropped or perhaps the rumours about the club cashing in on him has concentrated his mind , afterall he seems to have a relationship with Haaland playing for Norway.
Morning Kev, all.
Nice post Kev.
I agree with the views on who Viktor plays alongside, he certainly seems to perform better without Odegaard albeit it was he who set Viktor up for our last goal at the weekend.
Personally, I was all for giving our summer signings until the second half of the season, some haven’t needed it, others are now coming good. Better than good.