Viktor Gyokeres’ Premier League struggles – what’s happening and what can improve?

Arsenal seemed to be back to their best in midweek. A 3-1 win away to Inter on Wednesday evening, with both Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres scoring, was promising, but may not have been all that surprising.

Mikel Arteta’s side have won all seven of their UEFA Champions League matches this season, scoring the joint-highest number of goals in the competition (20).

Often up against teams who want to play attacking football, they enjoy more freedom than when they face low and mid-blocks in the Premier League.

Arsenal are seven points clear and the second-highest scorers in the Premier League, but off the back of two goalless draws, the return to league action begs the question of whether their European form can be replicated domestically.

Much of the focus after those draws fell on Gyokeres, who had once again failed to make the difference, but also Arsenal’s attack as a collective.

So, what does Gyokeres need to do better, and what could those around him do to elevate Arsenal to an even higher level than they are already hitting in the Premier League?

There is no hiding from the fact that Gyokeres has been underwhelming for Arsenal in the Premier League this season. The 27-year-old has scored five goals and just two from open play in 20 games (17 starts).

The Swede’s numbers have been used to both criticise and praise him recently, but points of concern have been more qualitative than quantitative.

For instance, after his return from a muscular injury in November, Arsenal’s online fanbase appeared to split into two camps. One side felt Gyokeres’ team-mates were not looking to pass to him enough, while the other felt they were looking for better movement from the centre-forward in and around the box.

In some sense, both sides can be valid. After 22 Premier League matches, the player to create the most chances for Gyokeres is Bukayo Saka, but that tally stands at just four.

Collectively, Arsenal are not finding their striker that often, but he could also do more to be found.

The issues regarding his lack of sharp movements to get into the box were highlighted last month, and were evident again in Arsenal’s recent draws.

In the below sequence against Liverpool, the ball is played to Saka, which creates a massive gap between Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.

Gyokeres’ run does not disturb Konate in the slightest, as he stays central instead of bursting into the space. Liverpool’s midfielders then close off the space and Saka cuts in to have a tame shot at goal.

Gyokeres was pointing for a ball in behind from Ben White against Nottingham Forest, but again, his run was not sharp enough to make up White’s mind.

The centre-forward was frustrated that the ball did not come, but he was covered by two centre-backs. Forest then swarmed seven players around the ball as it came forward again.

In some cases, the player making the run forces the pass to be played, and while Gyokeres has called for the ball, the lack of pace in his runs has not forced the issue.

The types of runs he has been making this year at Arsenal have not been totally different from those he made last season at Sporting CP, but that lack of variation has stood out more in the Premier League when faced with higher-quality defenders.

Another reason these factors are more qualitative than quantitative is that when a ball is flashed across the box, and there is nobody there to finish, it will be chalked up as an inaccurate pass, not a chance created.

Another factor is how teams set up against Arsenal. Those frustrating mid and low blocks leave little space for midfielders and forwards to operate in, and that comes across in the contrast between where Gyokeres is taking his shots compared to previous seasons. So far this year, his average shot distance of 12 yards is the closest to goal that he has been shooting in his entire career.

That may seem like a positive, but often those shots are being taken under pressure inside the box, as shown in how many of his shots are low-quality chances.

In the Premier League, he has taken just three shots from outside the box. Against Inter, he took two from just outside the box, scoring the first.

As a team, Arsenal’s average distance of shot is the third-closest to goal in the Premier League (14.6 yards), but they benefit when players shoot on sight.

All three of Eberechi Eze’s north London derby goals came from the edge of the box, as did Leandro Trossard’s strike away to Sunderland and Jesus’ curler against Aston Villa. At a time when defences look to get set for repetitive patterns of play, finding those opportunities to try your luck could make a massive difference.

But that, and Arsenal’s recent dry spell in the league, is not solely on Gyokeres.

In the Premier League, Arsenal have no real standouts when it comes to goals and assists. Leandro Trossard has the most (nine), followed by Saka and Declan Rice with seven, while Eze and Mikel Merino have six, and Gyokeres, Gabriel Magalhaes and Timber all have five.

The attack was flowing nicely around the turn of the year, with four goals scored against Aston Villa and three against Bournemouth, but questions arose after successive goalless draws. Part of the recent slump may be down to an intense schedule, with each team in the top four winless in their last two league games, representing the challenge that comes with a nine-game month.

Looking at Arsenal in isolation, Arteta said their struggles against Forest were “different” to those against Liverpool because of the contrasting styles and a lack of composure in moments when they regained possession at the City Ground.

While Liverpool did set up differently from Forest, there were some similarities in the challenges Arsenal have faced since they became one of England’s most dominant teams.

In the opening 20 minutes, Liverpool were set in a compact block to force Arsenal wide. Arsenal used William Saliba’s passing and Jurrien Timber’s positioning between Milos Kerkez and the rest of the Liverpool block to combat that approach, and were able to find some joy, but just lacked the finishing touch.

Using Timber in that way definitely troubled Liverpool, but nobody could be blamed for wondering whether a centre-back passing to a right-back was the best way to pry open a stubborn back line.

With Liverpool set up how they were, that area was naturally where Arsenal had extra men, so it was understandable why they used their defenders this way.

Arsenal’s solutions to a compact defence were different away to Inter, though. While Champions League matches are typically more open than those in the Premier League, Inter were in an even more compact shape than Liverpool when Jesus scored the opener.

That evening, instead of working the ball around the side of that block, Arsenal played through it. Eze played forward to Jesus, whose lay-off for Mikel Merino began a chain of one-touch passes. The speed of those passes accompanied by forward runs from Jesus, Eze and Timber created chaos within Inter’s shape, and by the time the ball fell to Jesus to score, Arsenal had six players inside the box.

So they are capable of playing through pressure, but it may depend on the chemistry and connections between certain players in those areas.

Arteta has often emphasised these points when talking about his players, most recently with Eze, but it was also evident with Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori. With all his attacking options fit and available, how he assembles his attacks now may be as interesting as ever.

The starting front four against Inter (Trossard, Eze, Saka and Jesus) was technical, and complemented Merino, Lewis-Skelly and Timber. Gyokeres benefited from the space that came in the second half, which could potentially be replicated in the Premier League when Arsenal are already ahead, but also if he makes those runs with a similar intensity.

In recent years, Arsenal have looked most threatening when they create chances through central areas. It was a major part of their initial improvement at the start of the 2022-23 season, with 20 per cent of their chances at that time created from the central zone just outside the box, as well as Jesus receiving more progressive passes than any player in the Premier League.

They have had a much-improved presence in that zone this season compared to last, but the quest for an attack as evenly distributed as the 2022-23 season is still ongoing.

A point was made to Arteta earlier this month that the fewest number of goals that a centre-forward has scored for a Premier League-winning side is 13.

Asked whether it was an issue that his top scorers (Gyokeres and Trossard) only had five league goals, the Arsenal manager replied: “We want the goals to spread and our strikers are scoring over 20 goals, that’s the idea.”

If Arsenal get over the line by sharing the load, it will be nothing new.

During the 2022-23 title race, a regular topic of discussion was whether they needed an Erling Haaland-type striker to do most of the scoring. That season, Haaland scored 38.2 per cent (36) of City’s league goals, while Arsenal had four players score more than 10 league goals in Odegaard (15), Martinelli (15), Saka (14) and Jesus (11).

The following year, Arteta said: “I would prefer that those goals are shared, because I think it is more probable that this is going to be consistently maintainable.”

While Gyokeres has not been the out-and-out scorer that they thought they were signing, the squad have still chipped away. In fact, they rank second in the Premier League behind Brighton & Hove Albion’s tally of 15 for the number of different scorers this season (13).

For all that’s worth, however, Arteta and his players will know there is room for growth in the second half of the season. They will hope that the win at Inter is the spark that ignites exciting post-January form as their trip to Dubai did back in 2024.