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(Credit: Imago)
Oliver Walton
Tue 19 August 2025 9:00, UK
Mikel Arteta has been backed to snub Viktor Gyokeres in favour of making Kai Havertz his main centre-forward option this season despite the high-profile move.
Arsenal’s attacking shortfalls were made clear throughout last season as injuries to Havertz and Gabriel Jesus saw midfielder Mikel Merino shoehorned into centre-forward for the second-half of the campaign.
Football Insider revealed in May that Arsenal had been given the green light to sign Gyokeres from Sporting CP, and he joined the club last month for £55million [Sky Sports] after also being tracked by Man United.
He has joined the Gunners to provide competition to Havertz at striker, with Arteta choosing to hand the Swede his competitive debut with a start in their opening Premier League game against United on Sunday (17 August).
Gyokeres struggled to make an impact against the Red Devils despite Arsenal’s 1-0 win, and he could be fearing an instant snub from his Spanish boss with Havertz waiting patiently in the wings for his chance.
(Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media)
Gyokeres created zero chances and completed just four passes against United, while only three of his 21 touches came inside their penalty area, and he was beaten in five of his six aerial duels and five of his seven ground duels [Fotmob].
He also failed to attempt a shot in a single match for the first time since appearing for Coventry City against Swansea City in April 2023, and was taken off in the 60th minute for Havertz.
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Speaking live on talkSPORT (18 August), former Watford striker Deeney backed Arteta to snub Gyokeres for Havertz this season, insisting that he believes the German forward will be first-choice and start more games across the campaign.
He said: “Gyokeres, for me, is not the answer.
I know it’s only one game in and people will say that he’s rusty, but if you look at his movement, the way he was running, again there was an incident where he went through one v one and stands on the ball.
“It’s just, for me I think you are going to see, and I’ve said it in a column in The Sun on the weekend, you’re going to see Havertz start more games than you will Gyokeres over the course of the season.”
Football Insider verdict
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has backed Arteta to drop Gyokeres for Arsenal’s clash against Liverpool in two weeks’ time, but claims around his lack of readiness for the top-flight seem premature given that he has played just an hour of football so far.
Gyokeres’ whereabouts were the subject of intense speculation earlier this summer following an amazing season with Sporting that saw him bag 39 goals in 33 league games, and it is not as if he has lost that scoring touch overnight.
PlayerAppearancesGoalsAssistsViktor Gyokeres525413Gyokeres’ 2024/25 stats (all competitions)
His path to stardom has admittedly been an unusual one, after he struggled to break through into Brighton’s first team between 2018 and 2021, then impressed at Coventry to earn a move to Sporting two years ago, where he then became one of the world’s most in-demand strikers.
For him to be written off so early in his Arsenal career seems shortsighted and wrong, especially given that Havertz has hardly set the world alight while up-front under Arteta, hence why they wanted so sign another striker in the first place.
Despite his poor performance at Old Trafford, Gyokeres definitely should be given more chances to prove himself from the off going forward due to his scoring record and potential to be a game-changer for the Gunners.
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