Anyone with even the remotest interest in Premier League football can recite the biggest talking point surrounding Arsenal this season: they need a striker.
The Gunners are set to finish as bridesmaids in the title race for the second year running. And while they have been hugely unfortunate with injury luck this term, there is no disguising the fact that their lack of a true No.9 has cost them dearly once again.
Kai Havertz – a technically sound forward who offers plenty in terms of link play and pressing – has led the line for most of the campaign. But the Germany star is a converted attacking midfielder.
And it shows in his output – nine league goals, coming at a rate of one every 204.6 minutes.
The teams around Arsenal in the table all feature at least one high-scoring forward upon whom any success this season has been founded.
There is, obviously, Mohamed Salah at Liverpool (27 goals), plus Chris Wood at Nottingham Forest (18), Erling Haaland at Manchester City (21) and Alexander Isak at Newcastle (19).
And so as their dreams of a first title since the 2004 Invincibles fade for yet another year, thoughts are already turning to how Arsenal should remedy their biggest issue in the transfer market this coming summer.
The name that recurs in all reputable reports is Viktor Gyokeres, the outrageously prolific Sporting CP striker.
It’s little wonder why the Gunners have supposedly identified the Swede as a top target, too. He’d solve more than simply their need for goals.
But it’s goals that grab headlines, so let’s begin there. Gyokeres, put simply, scores a lot of them – 85 across 92 appearances since joining the Portuguese club from Coventry in 2023, to be precise.
Last season was a breakout campaign for the 26-year-old. His career to that point had been something of a slow burn. An early spell with Brighton yielded just one goal in eight games across a four-year span and represented a rare reverse in the transfer market for the savvy south coast club.
He even flattered to deceive early on with Coventry in the second tier after initially joining the Sky Blues on loan.
But he found his feet in year two in the Midlands, after the switch was made permanent, and went on to score 40 goals over his final two seasons with the club.
Such form convinced Sporting to part with a club-record €20 million to sign him. He repaid that faith severalfold, bagging 43 goals in 50 all-competitions games to fire Ruben Amorim’s side to the Liga Portugal title.
And, despite rumours of a departure last summer, Gyokeres remained at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and picked up right where he’d left off.
So far this season, he’s scored 30 league goals from just 26 appearances and has netted 42 in all competitions, including a Champions League hat-trick against Manchester City.
So, requirement No.1: goalscoring. Very much a tick in that box.
But it is in a deeper analysis of his style that Gyokeres comes to represent an even comfier fit for Arsenal.
While the centre-forward position has been a weakness for the Gunners for much of Mikel Arteta’s reign, the left side of their attack is no more formidable.
On the right, there is Bukayo Saka, one of the best players in the world in his position. On the left, neither Gabriel Martinelli nor Leandro Trossard are of the requisite quality to hypothetically threaten the starting line-ups for other title challengers, no do they particularly strike fear into opponents.
Gyokeres spent a significant portion of his early career player on the left wing. And it shows in his play.
As well as being a devastating finisher within 20 yards of goal, from almost any angle, and an astute mover inside the box when it comes to finding crucial inches of space and pouncing on cut-backs, he also shares a trait with a legend of Arsenal’s past.
Like Thierry Henry, the star player of Arsenal’s most recent title success more than 20 years ago, Gyokeres is adept at pulling wide to the left to seek space, draw defenders out of position and sear through the half-space with impressive acceleration.
With him at the point of attack or even, say, partnering a facilitating forward like Havertz, the left side of the Gunners’ forward line would become just as problematic for defences as the right.
“It’s going to be a big one and we are very excited about it,” Arteta said in a press conference this week about Arsenal’s summer transfer plans under new sporting director Andrea Berta.
“But now when you are going to go again, we want to increase the depth of the squad but as well we want to increase the quality and the skills that we need to go to the next step.”
Gyokeres certainly won’t be a cheap option. He has a release clause in his Sporting contract set at £83 million. And he is not without a few red flags.
A staggering 12 of his 30 league goals this season have come from the penalty spot, for example, which raises concerns over the sustainability of his output.
But while fellow Swedish goal machine Isak – another rumoured Arsenal target – is a year younger and comes with Premier League pedigree, he’d also come with a prohibitive premium, likely to cost well over £100 million to pry away from Newcastle.
Gyokeres can serve several purposes for Arsenal. Scoring goals by the bucketload is just one of them.
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