Mikel Arteta has issued a rallying cry to his Arsenal squad, stating they have a “big responsibility” to bring out the best in Viktor Gyokeres. The £64million striker failed to make an impact on his Premier League debut at Manchester United last Sunday and was unable to register a single shot on target.
This lacklustre performance follows a truncated pre-season for Gyokeres, who only had two weeks of training due to his drawn-out transfer from Sporting, causing him to miss a significant portion of Arsenal‘s season preparations. Despite being a prolific scorer in Portugal, the Swedish star’s transition to the Premier League is seen as a gamble. However, Arteta has expressed satisfaction with his new striker’s progress and emphasised the role of Gyokeres’ team-mates in playing to his strengths.
Arteta, the Gunners boss, stated: “I think we are going to be extremely happy when he starts to put the ball in the back of the net very, very often which is his biggest ability.
“So the team and myself, we have a big responsibility to help him and to understand him to be more efficient and the first game was a really demanding game and we will take it from there.
“But I’ve seen in what has been a really short period because we’ve had to manage a lot of training sessions within that.”
With Kai Havertz sidelined due to injury for the next few weeks, expectations are high for Gyokeres to perform against Leeds.
Arteta has praised the performance of his robust centre forward at Old Trafford on Sunday, despite the player being substituted early without making a significant impact.
Arteta explained: “Well, depending on how the game developed. And every game brings different challenges, opportunities.
“I think the game was very demanding physically, became really, really open for different reasons. And we decided that at that moment he did enough. And we had Kai on the bench to come and change the game.
“But he is ready to go again. He’s very, very enthusiastic. He trained really well this week. Again, he had another week under his belt, he looks in a really good place.”
The initial plan was for Arsenal to gradually integrate Gyokeres into the team, sharing duties with Havertz. However, the German striker now faces a period out of action.
Arsenal are unsure of the duration of Havertz’s absence or whether he will require knee surgery. They hope the issue will resolve with rest and treatment, but Arteta could not provide a definitive timeline.
Arteta added: “Unfortunately, he picked up an injury and we don’t really know yet the extent of it. I think we need a bit more time and some more tests and after that we’ll have more clarity about the next steps.
“I prefer not to talk about the specifics but he’s not fit. As I said, we need to explore that issue a little bit further and then decide what we’re going to do.
“The bad scenario is that he can’t play tomorrow. I would love to have him fresh and available and bring what he brings to the team. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be possible.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk