If Arsenal are going to achieve what they want to achieve this season, their success is seemingly going to be built on a foundation of 2-0 wins.
Mikel Arteta’s team have enjoyed back-to-back victories by that scoreline this week, beating Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday, before downing West Ham on Saturday, with Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka the scorers.
The Hammers did not muster a single shot on target, ending the afternoon with a miserly xG of just 0.49, while the Gunners have now conceded just three goals in ten matches across all competitions; Dominik Szoboszlai, Erling Braut Håland and Nick Woltemade the only men to find the target against them to date.
Thus, Arteta’s team remain watertight at the back, but will be hoping for a little bit more at the other end of the pitch, so will their new centre-forward click into gear, and did they actually sell a home-grown version who has been starring in Europe since departing?
Viktor Gyökeres' mixed start to life at Arsenal
Fair to say, after arriving from Sporting Clube de Portugal for around £62m, Viktor Gyökeres did so with sky-high expectations.
Despite Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus’ array of qualities, Arsenal have not had a truly reliable goalscorer since the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January 2022, and Gyökeres’ tally of 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting speaks for itself.
Last month, at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, the Swedish international was awarded the Gerd Müller Trophy, given to the highest-scoring striker in European football, but he doesn’t quite look like a world beater just yet in red and white.
His statistics below underline his mixed start to life in North London.
As the table documents, in nine appearances, Gyökeres does have three goals to his name, but it could be more.
Appearances
9
Minutes
733
Goals
3
Assists
Zero
Shots
18
Shots on target
7
Big chances missed
7
Expected goals
3.94
Chances created
6
Big chances created
Zero
Expected assists
0.5
Touches per 90
27.15
% of touches in box
26%
Average SofaScore rating
6.57
His expected goals figure is almost four, while he has so far missed seven Opta-defined big chances across the Premier League and Champions League.
The numbers also show that the striker is offering almost nothing from a creation point of view, mustering just 27 touches per 90, of which more than a quarter come in the opposition’s penalty area.
Patience is required; Gyökeres is taking time to adapt to his new teammates, who are likewise still adapting to him.
However, did the Gunners sell their own home-grown Gyökeres for just £4m, a player who has been absolutely on fire since leaving?
Arsenal's home-grown Viktor Gyökeres
Back in 2021, Arsenal poached an 18-year-old by the name of Mika Biereth from Fulham, an event that would’ve passed most Gooners by, considering he never made a single first-team appearance for the club.
However, he was prolific in Premier League 2, scoring 11 times in 21 games, subsequently loaned out to RKC Waalwijk and then Motherwell, certainly catching the eye during his very brief spell at Fir Park, bagging six goals in 14 Premiership outings for the Steelmen.
His loan in North Lanarkshire was abruptly cut short, allowing him to move to Sturm Graz, first on loan and then permanently for £4m, really making his name in Austria.
Biereth scored 23 times in just 47 appearances for die Schwoazn, averaging a goal every 156 minutes, helping them win a domestic double, as well as bagging three goals in four outings in the Conference League, before netting against Girona and Lille in the Champions League too. As the forward self-proclaimed in one interview, “like Haaland, all I really care about is scoring goals”. He’s like Gyokeres in that regard too.
Thus, back in January, Monaco moved quickly to sign the now 22-year-old for a reported fee of €15m (around £13m).
This quickly looked like a very shrewd investment because, in Ligue 1 last season, Biereth scored 13 times in just 16 appearances, including bagging hat-tricks against Auxerre, Nantes and Reims, firing les Monégasques to a third-place finish.
As a result of this form, Football Transfers estimate that the Danish international’s current market value is now around £23m, representing a 464% increase on what Arsenal sold him for.
The Gunners did pocket around £1m via a sell-on clause when the striker swapped Sturm Graz for the Principality, but could have earned so much more had they given Biereth a chance.
Admittedly, he has only scored once so far this season, on target during a 5-2 victory over Metz at Stade Louis II last month, so only time will tell if he was just a one-season wonder, or if this is a brief blip.
Nevertheless, given that Gyökeres is yet to be firing on all cylinders, perhaps Biereth would have been a more effective option to spearhead this Arsenal attack.
