Arteta issued with Viktor Gyokeres warning: 'I would advise against'

Arsenal are working to close a deal for Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres after months of speculation claiming that the Sweden international was Emirates-bound

Mikel Arteta has been told that Viktor Gyokeres should be utilised as a lone striker if Arsenal are to get the best out of him in the Premier League by the former England manager, Roy Hodgson.

The Gunners have set their sights on the Sweden international in their search for a new No.9 and talks with Sporting Lisbon over a deal for the 27-year-old are now advanced. Gyokeres desperately wants the move and has already made it clear he will not return to play for the Portuguese champions again.

Arsenal are hoping that a marquee summer signing in attack can help them finally win the Premier League after finishing second for a third successive year.

And while Hodgson is convinced that landing Gyokeres will be a 'real feather in the cap' for Arsenal, he has stressed that both the Gunners and the Sweden national team - who also boast Alexander Isak within their ranks - must utilise him properly.

“Viktor Gyokeres is at a big club already, he's getting the level of football that the Swedish national team would want but If he does come to England, I'm pretty sure that will be welcomed, if you like, by the whole Premier League in terms of the level of play he will bring,” Hodgson told Hajper.

“If Arsenal do sign him, it will be a real feather in their cap. With regard to the national team, that might give the national team coach a decision to make because I think that both Alexander Isak and Gyokeres are used to playing as a lone centre forward, backed up either from behind or from the wings.

“So it might mean he would have to think about how am I going to organise it because to get the best out of both players it would seem to me they need to be playing centrally which would push him towards a system whereby he has to compensate maybe in other areas but that's not a difficult thing to do if he wants to do it.

“I would advise against trying to move one of them out of position and push them wide, for example, because I don't think that would be necessary, the success that we would think about when you think about two really good centre forwards and what they can bring to the team.

“They need to be there together. It's not impossible. You go back to all the Liverpool teams you can think of which were successful and the Manchester United teams, they all had two forwards who played together.”

While it remains to be seen how the Sweden national team will get the best out of both Gyokeres and Isak, the situation is much clearer at Arsenal, who are highly likely to deploy Gyokeres as their man out-and-out striker.

The Gunners have already bolstered their attacking options by signing Noni Madueke and are also expected to pursue a deal for Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze.