Viktor Gyokeres has scored a total of 15 goals in all competitions since the beginning of the season for Arsenal, after scoring a beautiful double against Tottenham. 15 goals may not satisfy many "Gunners" fans, but the performance at the North London Derby recently is what fans of this team have always expected from the Swedish striker.
After the match, when answering Sky Sports, Mikel Arteta shared that this could be his best match since joining the team. For Gyokeres, he shared that he can do better in many aspects. The 27-year-old striker's answer shows humility but it also does not deny his progress, at least in the recent match against Tottenham.
The goal scored from outside the penalty area into Tottenham's net was the moment Arsenal fans had been waiting for from Gyokeres for a long time. Before that, he also had a long-range shot into Inter's net in the Champions League, but that frequency was too low. Sharing about this goal, Gyokeres said that he reviewed his teammate Eze's goal into Tottenham's net in the first leg of the season in such a way. After that, he and Eze tried to practice like that several times before the second leg.
Arsenal posted a training video on their YouTube channel on the day of the match against Inter. In it, Gyokeres won a challenge at the end of the session. The challenge rule is to place the ball in the penalty area with one touch and finish with the next touch. That was a situation almost identical to his goal against Spurs.
Mikel Arteta has repeatedly reminded his players to shoot whenever they have a chance, not to be too fussy. Gyokeres's goal was the 9th time Arsenal have scored from distance (outside the penalty area) in the Premier League this season.
After 20 Premier League appearances with 17 starts since the beginning of the season, Gyokeres has an average shooting distance of about 11m. This is his lowest distance since playing professionally. In shots from this average distance, Gyokeres often misses due to opposing defenders pressing close.
Understanding that, the Swedish striker has been more refined and meticulous in his finishing phases, no longer trying to shoot for show as before. To have favorable shooting distances like the victory against Tottenham, Gyokeres has learned how to move without the ball more intelligently. Both goals came from such times when the 27-year-old star chose a very good position.
Not only that, Gyokeres' ability to connect with his teammates is also better. Arsenal really needs a striker who can coordinate spikes with the satellites around him. In the match against Tottenham, Gyokeres did that quite often with Eze and Saka. One of the combinations directly impacted the assist that led to Arsenal's 3rd goal. That situation needs to be repeated with Gyokeres for the rest of the season.
However, besides his strengths, Gyokeres has not completely improved everything. David Raya's ability to take advantage of long balls is a clear limitation of Gyokeres. It should be noted that 7/10 of Gyokeres' goals in the Premier League were against teams in the bottom 6 group after round 27. He has also not scored any goals against a team in the Top 9, although he scored against Chelsea in the League Cup.
