The career of Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres has reached a crossroads. Even he, a man with a piercing gaze and fierce determination, has been unable to hide his unease of late.
An image of a forlorn Gyokeres arriving at Arsenal’s London Colney training base on Thursday was widely circulated online.
Clutching a black washbag, his demeanour spoke of a man lingering on the outside, searching for a way into Mikel Arteta’s first XI plans.
A more telling example of his frustration came in a pre-season friendly away in Girona last month, when he screamed ‘Max!’ at Max Dowman for failing to pass to him.
Gyokeres is in uncharted territory, more generally. The Swede has not played a single minute in either of Arsenal’s two league matches thus far, against Coventry and Aston Villa.
Villa away, for example, seemed tailor-made for the introduction of the 28-year-old in the second period, Kai Havertz having underwhelmed and with the opposition backline flagging.
It’s been a disappointing season so far for Viktor Gyokeres, and an image of the forlorn Swede arriving at Arsenal’s London Colney training base on Thursday was widely circulated online
Gyokeres has been left on the bench in Arsenal’s first two Premier League games, with Kai Havertz (left) preferred up front
But, no, he stayed put on the bench. It went against the grain for Arteta. Of the 36 league matches last season in which Gyokeres made the Arsenal squad, the striker featured in every single game.
Twenty-six were starts, the other 10 appearances off the bench. It makes his treatment thus far at odds with how Arteta previously used the forward, who struck 21 goals across all competitions last season.
Chelsea at home on Sunday – a fixture that may well have enormous significance in this season’s title race – feels a significant moment for the Swede’s Gunners career.
If he were not to feature in any capacity, the experiences of Aaron Ramsdale and Gabriel Martinelli come to mind.
David Raya’s move to Arsenal in 2023 – initially on loan before signing a long-term contract – saw Ramsdale frozen out and eventually sold to Southampton. Ramsdale had been an important player for Arteta, a mainstay of the first XI. And then he wasn’t.
Martinelli, meanwhile, only made 11 league starts last season and was sold to Al Hilal for £60million earlier this week.
With Gyokeres, an interesting subplot was Arsenal’s keenness to bring in a striker this summer.
As Daily Mail Sport reported on Wednesday, it is understood assistant manager Gabriel Heinze reached out to Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez – a fellow Argentine – early last week over a potential move.
Inter refused to entertain any kind of deal, the attacker still having three years left on his contract.
The Gunners’ pursuit of Julian Alvarez has been well-documented. That, of course, failed to come off.
So, Arsenal were actively trying to bring a striker into the club, aware of the need for one to supplement Havertz and Gyokeres with Gabriel Jesus out the door.
Write off Gyokeres at your peril. It is easy to forget this is a striker who scored 21 goals in all competitions last season
He also has a track record of overcoming adversity, navigating a difficult start to life in England at Brighton (pictured in 2018) by flourishing at Coventry
It’s now crunch time for Gyokeres, though he can at least tap into his experience of overcoming adversity.
After struggling to break through at Brighton aged 19, the Swede went on loan to Coventry, where he would go on to sign a three-year deal and score 41 goals across 110 appearances in the Championship.
That earned him a move to Sporting Lisbon, taking the Portuguese league by storm, striking 97 goals in 102 matches across all competitions.
He will need to summon that same resilience now to reassert himself in an Arsenal frontline shallow in depth. The route back into Arteta’s plans remains firmly within his grasp.
Tellingly, when Arteta was asked on Friday whether his frontline is ‘world class’, he replied: ‘I love my players, that’s all I can say. In the bracket, how you want to put them, I don’t know.
‘I think at the end of the season we’ll put everybody in their place, and let’s trust them. Let’s make sure that we are right behind them and we’ll do everything we can to help the incredible talent that they have.’
Those words offer little in the way of guarantees for Gyokeres. But they do underline the opportunity in front of him.
Chelsea at home on Sunday could provide the clearest opportunity yet to change the narrative, to remind Arteta and the Arsenal supporters why the club pushed so hard to bring him to north London, battling off Manchester United and others for his signature.
Gyokeres has been here before, overlooked and forced to fight for his place. Soon we will discover whether he can do it again.
