The removal of Viktor Gyokeres from the Champions League quarter-final, after 56 ineffective minutes, could be viewed in two ways.
The first is that Mikel Arteta wanted to save the striker’s legs ahead of Sunday’s match against Manchester City, which is arguably Arsenal’s biggest league game in two decades. The second is that he wanted to give Kai Havertz half an hour of action, to prepare the German and keep him fresh, because he has no intention of starting Gyokeres at the Etihad.
On the evidence of this showing, and indeed other recent performances by Gyokeres, many Arsenal supporters will be hoping it is the latter. Gyokeres is Arsenal’s top scorer this season and he has produced some promising moments since the turn of the year, but he is currently struggling badly to have any sort of positive impact on his team’s attacking play.
No player could have been as motivated as Gyokeres for the quarter-final against Sporting CP, his former club. But over the course of the tie he offered none of the threat he so regularly displayed in Lisbon, where he scored 97 goals in 102 matches. In the first leg in Portugal, Gyokeres touched the ball 18 times and had one shot. In the second leg he touched the ball 14 times and again had one shot.
Gyokeres has played almost a full season with Arsenal but he is still yet to build a strong on-field relationship with his attacking colleagues. In a nervy goalless draw against Sporting, which secured a 1-0 aggregate victory, he never found the same wavelength as Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke or Eberechi Eze. Too many of his passes were either overhit or totally misdirected.
One of the glaringly obvious issues with Gyokeres is that he is far better when facing the opponent’s defence than when he is attempting to hold up the ball with his back to goal. Long passes into his body so rarely stick, and therefore so rarely result in another Arsenal forward being brought into the game.
The problem here is that it means Arsenal are largely unable to use long passes as a release against high-pressing opponents. This was particularly evident in the defeat by Bournemouth on Saturday, when Andoni Iraola’s side were so unafraid of Gyokeres that they left one defender to mark him and asked the others to push higher up the pitch.
It was also evident in the Carabao Cup final defeat by City last month. Pep Guardiola’s players focused on blocking Arsenal’s midfield, knowing that any long balls to Gyokeres were unlikely to cause any problems. As a result, Arsenal were unable to find a foothold in the game.
Arteta surely cannot allow City to repeat that strategy this weekend. The inclusion of David Raya over backup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga should help in this regard, but playing Havertz over Gyokeres would also provide Arsenal with a much-needed target man.
It could be argued that the role of substitute, or “finisher” as Arteta describes it, actually suits Gyokeres much better than a position in the starting line-up. Many of the 27-year-old’s best moments have come when the game is more stretched, as happens when legs tire in the second half. With space to run into, and counter-attacks to lead, Gyokeres looks far more effective as an attacking force.
After paying £64m to sign Gyokeres in the summer, Arteta has been obliged to give the striker time to adapt to Arsenal’s style of play. But this is now the defining moment of the season. It is all about the here and now, and Gyokeres simply does not look like the striker that Arsenal need in a title-deciding showdown.