‘Relentless and driven’ – Viktor Gyokeres is Arsenal’s new £64m weapon but will he deliver Premier League glory?

The £64million question for Arsenal is whether Viktor Gyokeres is the missing piece of the puzzle to fire them to the Premier League title.

The Gunners have not lifted the trophy since 2004, but have come agonisingly close in the last three seasons.

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Mikel Arteta’s side have finished second in the three consecutive campaigns, losing out to Man City twice and Liverpool.

There’s undeniably so much talent in this Arsenal team, but there’s been one thing fans have been crying out for… an out and out striker.

Kai Havertz was their leading goalscorer last season in all competitions with 15, but no player in the Premier League got in double figures.

It has not been for the want of trying to get in a number nine.

Benjamin Sesko was their top target last summer, but he ended up signing a new contract at RB Leipzig. Now he’s set to be Manchester United’s new superstar after they hijacked Newcastle’s attempts to sign the 6ft5in front man.

They even saw a £60m bid for Ollie Watkins turned down in January.

But in Gyokeres they have an absolute goal machine. The 26-year-old smashed in an astonishing 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting in just two seasons.

Before that, he ripped up the Championship with Coventry. There’s no doubt he’s ready to make the biggest step up of his career.

Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz differences

Gyokeres’s former teammate Ben Sheaf, who is the current Coventry captain and played 80 times together, lifted the lid on just how hungry the Swedish striker is to get goals.

Joining talkSPORT Breakfast, Sheaf said: “Playing with Vik and knowing him as a person, I think he’ll relish the challenge. He definitely has the attributes to make an impact there.

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“He brings Arsenal something that they might not quite have at the moment in the squad they’ve got. I’d definitely back him to make an impact.

“They’ve been crying out for a real number nine. Havertz has done a fantastic job up there, but he’s a different profile to Vik. 

“He’s that real number nine. Leading the line, hungry to score goals, and a real goal scorer. I think it’s something that they’ve probably been crying out for. 

“The fans have definitely been crying out for that for the last year or so.

“He can finish off both feet. When he was here, he’d always finish training and go and absolutely smash balls. 

“He’d want to just finish, finish, finish always after training. He was very relentless, very driven and took a lot of his frustration out on the ball in finishing drills.

“He was obviously great for us and you could say he was ready to move on and he was always looking to do bigger and better things.”

Viktor Gyokeres’ attitude

Charlton striker Matty Godden knows more than most what it’s like to play alongside Gyokeres.

The pair were strike partners 50 times at Coventry and Godden highlighted his attitude as something that sets him apart.

Speaking on talkSPORT Breakfast, he said: “What he’s done, probably since he came in at Coventry, has been unbelievable to be fair.

“He came in on loan [from Brighton] and didn’t really do much, then we signed him that summer and he came back a different animal.

“He’s so quick, so powerful and probably the biggest part of him, he was so driven to go on and do something, and I think he’s probably done that again at Sporting.

“He’s gone there and been like, ‘I’m the main man, I’m going to score 30, 40 goals this season and kick on again.’ I think he deserves his move when he gets it.”

Unstoppable Gyokeres

Brooke Norton-Cuffy is another former Coventry teammate who gave talkSPORT insight into what it was like to play with the towering striker.

He revealed the extreme lengths opponents would go to in an effort to keep him quiet, but would often have little or no effect.

Norton-Cuffy told Hawksbee & Jacobs: “There were teams putting two, three players on him and he was managing to beat them or find a way to score. Just creating chances out of nothing and not just skill-wise, his mental side of the game.

“You can see he’s hungry, but if he doesn’t score, he’s not happy. For example in practice, small-sided games if his team loses you don’t want to go near him for a little bit.

“So that’s just a winning mentality Gyok’s got to win things.”

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He added: “Vik’s powerful. He’s 6’3” and he can move, change direction quickly.

“He can run, he can beat you and then once he creates those chances, normally puts them away as well.

“He’s just a handful, just a really big handful and a good fit for us.”

Can Viktor Gyokeres fire Arsenal to the title?

There is a school of thought that Arsenal need one more signing and one that will help Gyokeres flourish.

The Gunners have been solid in defence and have strengthened the midfield with the signings of Martin Zubimendi and Christian Norgaard.

However, there have been calls to recruit another creative player and Arsenal are heavily interested in Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze.

talkSPORT understands that Eze’s release clause of £68m has now expired, but that has not ruled out an Arsenal bid.

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His best position is as a number 10 – currently occupied by Martin Odegaard and Ethan Nwaneri.

However, the Gunners see him as a multi-functional attacker who can also play on the left.

The left wing was something of an issue for Arteta last season with Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli both failing to deliver consistently.

Arsenal podcaster Clive Palmer told Inside Gooners just why Eze could be the perfect fit.

He said: “Watching some of the pre-season games I thought some of our technical ability on the ball was quite low, regardless of the fact it’s pre-season and we’ve got heavy legs etc.

“You’re looking for more technicians and Eze’s technical ability is really, really high

When the ball comes into his feet, everything changes. People trust him with the ball, so they start to move.

“For me, a lot of our lack of creativity is down to our lack of movement. Why don’t we have enough movement? Because we don’t have enough technical quality on the ball, so you stand and wait for it to come back to you. But when players can beat people you start to move, you start to flow and I want more of those players in the club.”

Arsenal have one more pre-season game against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday at the Emirates before a trip to Old Trafford to face Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United for their Premier League opener.

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