How Viktor Gyokeres is improving Arsenal: The variation he adds to the attack

Viktor Gyokeres just needed one to go in, it really didn’t matter how. Seven games without a goal for Arsenal’s new £65million striker is plenty enough these days to be written off as a lost cause.

A brace against Atletico Madrid, though, was just what he needed. That his first came courtesy of stabbing the ball against a defender’s foot and watching it dribble into the opposite corner didn’t matter one jot. No pictures in the scorebook.

While plenty others were happy to cast their doubts on whether Arsenal had signed the striker they needed after all, Mikel Arteta never lost faith.

‘He deserved it because everything that we were seeing in terms of what he was bringing to the team and how much he was helping the team in many areas, apart from scoring goals in the last few weeks, there was no debate about that,' Arteta said after the match.

‘He makes us a much better team. We’ve become much more unpredictable. He’s so physical and the way he presses the ball, and holds the ball, that’s phenomenal.’

Well, does he?

GUNNERS GO BOTH WAYS

Gyokeres does make Arsenal more unpredictable, Arteta is right about that. He allows the Gunners to attack in different ways.

His speed in behind enables Arsenal to stretch defences - handy in a division that now favours fast, direct football. His size and strength means he can come short, too, to help feed the likes of Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli running ahead of him.

Because this, after all, is a team that has long played without an out-and-out striker, much to the frustration of Arsenal supporters. Arteta’s previous favoured front man, Kai Havertz, was often underappreciated in what he offered - dropping in, linking play and keeping the passing machine moving. But he wasn't the kind of striker you could use as a focal point of the attack, not when getting the ball in behind defences is such a fruitful option in this new Premier League world.

Just compare where the two have most of their touches. Havertz dropping deep, drifting right, Gyokeres where he belongs.

Yet even though Gyokeres is largely remaining central, he is still mixing it up. On the opening day against Manchester United he drifted into the right channel, while against Liverpool he had most of his touches down the left.

Against United he came a lot deeper to get on the ball, with Saka running on ahead of him, but against Leeds he frequently peeled off the shoulder to exploit their high line as he did here en route to his first Arsenal goal...

PERPETUAL MOTION

Gyokeres never stops running. The Swede has covered more miles and made more sprints in the Premier League this season than any other out-and-out striker.

His 158 sprints are nearly 70 more than his nearest team-mate this term while only Martin Zubimendi has ran a further distance. Gyokeres is Arteta’s work horse.

Gyokeres’ physical presence, his strength and speed to be able to run in behind, means centre-back pairings often feel the need to double up on him. They stand touch-tight on either side of him trying their best to make sure someone like Martin Odegaard doesn’t slip him through and all of a sudden he's in on goal and in a foot race he's almost always going to win.

While that can be frustrating for Gyokeres, it often enables Arsenal’s wingers to attack the space the narrowing defences leave behind.

For Martinelli’s goal on Tuesday night, Atletico’s centre backs are so tight to Gyokeres that their full backs also have to come narrow for fear of leaving a chasm for Myles Lewis-Skelly to drive through. It leaves Martinelli with green grass in front of him, Lewis-Skelly picks him out and the winger tucks it into the corner.

Arsenal almost scored a similar goal in their previous Champions League outing against Olympiacos. The defence was so preoccupied with keeping Gyokeres away from the ball, it allowed Leandro Trossard the chance to sneak in unannounced from the flanks but, unlike Martinelli, he was unable to provide the finish.

Arsenal’s wingers are now much more able to get into one-on-one situations with opposition full backs. It’s no surprise that Saka is attempting and completing more dribbles in the league than ever before.

ROOM TO IMPROVE

There is still a lot Gyokeres – and his team-mates – need to improve for Arsenal to see the best of him. For one, his first touch. His willingness to come short and hold up play is a key part of Arsenal’s attack but while he has the strength to do so, he too often lacks the finesse to make it count.

In this example against City, he receives a pass from Zubimendi in space with his back to goal but instead of bringing it under control and being able to turn and find one of the runners either side of him, he takes a heavy touch and loses possession.

If there was one moment that summed up Gyokeres’s struggles it came on the opening day against Manchester United. He bulldozed Matthijs de Ligt, sending the United centre back thundering to the floor only to overhit a simple short pass into the area to Saka.

His pass success rate in the league this season is just 56 per cent. That is...bad. Last season, Havertz’s pass completion was nearly 80 per cent. And from his pass map this season, you can see how many of those misplaced passes come in dangerous areas around the penalty area.

Gyokeres showed early in the victory over Atletico just what can happen when he does get it right. Inside the first five minutes, he comes short to receive the ball, drags his centre back with him, and plays a neat pass into Eze who has the space to take a shot and hits the bar.

For all his work off the ball, he’s still not getting enough good chances though.

Gyokeres and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, his most comparative rival among the title contenders, have started every league game this season and, remarkably, have had the exact same number of touches, with a similar proportion coming in the opposition’s penalty area too.

That, really, is where the comparison ends. Haaland has attempted nearly double the number of shots as Gyokeres and the chances he’s had are of much, much better quality. Haaland has received 17 ‘big chances’, ones Opta say a player should reasonably be expected to score. Gyokeres has received just six.

At such an early stage in his Arsenal career, it is due to a combination of not making quite the right runs and his team-mates not quite knowing where to find him. When they have, however, he’s struggled to take his chances. His conversion rate is half that of Haaland’s so far in the league this term. Not the kind of finishing you would expect from someone who reached a half-century last season.

The signs are there, though. His two goals against Atletico, however they came, could well give him the confidence he needs to continue to repay Arteta’s faith.