The slow start is well documented at this point. Viktor Gyokeres arrived at Arsenal last summer for £55.1 million — a striker with a ludicrous Sporting CP record, 97 goals in 102 matches, the kind of numbers that belong in a video game — and then spent the first four months looking like he needed time to adjust. The Premier League had other ideas. The pace, the physicality, the press — none of it came easy immediately.
Since January, though, something has clicked. Eight goals in all competitions since the new year started. Ten Premier League goals for the season — more than any Arsenal player managed across the whole of last term. More goals than any other Premier League player in 2026. And perhaps most tellingly, a two-goal display against Tottenham that Mikel Arteta described as Gyokeres' best game in an Arsenal shirt since joining.
Why the slow start made sense
There's a reason why even elite strikers take time to adapt to the Premier League. Gyokeres was extraordinary at Sporting, but Portugal and England are different animals in terms of defensive intensity and physical demand. His pressing game — which was a defining feature of his brilliance in Lisbon — needed recalibrating. His movement inside the box, which had become automatic against Portuguese defences, was being read differently.
Arteta has been patient, which isn't always his default mode. But the manager clearly felt the player was on the right track. Earlier this season he said Arsenal were "on the right path" to getting the best out of the Swedish striker. Those comments look well-timed now.
The timing matters enormously
Arsenal are three points clear of Manchester City in the title race, but City have a game in hand and the momentum after beating the Gunners 2-1 last weekend. This is exactly the moment when Arsenal need their striker to carry weight. If Gyokeres can keep finding the net in the final five games of the season, it relieves enormous pressure on the rest of the team — particularly if results elsewhere go against them.
The irony is that Arsenal's title defence has been complicated by having two demanding competitions running simultaneously — the Champions League semi-final is on the horizon — while City get to focus exclusively on the league. Gyokeres being in form helps Arsenal cope with that extra load. A striker who is scoring regularly takes pressure off the midfield and the wide players to conjure something from nothing.
The Golden Boot picture
Gyokeres won't win the Golden Boot this season — Haaland's lead is too substantial, and the Norwegian just scored the winner in a title six-pointer. But the Swede is now genuinely in the conversation for top five scorers in the league, which felt unlikely in October.
More importantly for Arsenal, he doesn't need the Golden Boot. He needs five or six more goals between now and May to help his side over the line. Based on what he's produced since January, that's a realistic ask.
The bigger picture for a striker who was written off early
A few months ago, some sections of the media were quietly raising the possibility that Arsenal had wasted their money — that Gyokeres was a Sporting CP product who couldn't translate his game to the top level. Those takes look very different now. Players with his kind of goalscoring instinct don't forget how to finish. They occasionally forget temporarily, find a rhythm again, and then start doing what comes naturally.
He's in that rhythm now. Arsenal fans who were nervous about whether the £55 million was justified should be feeling considerably better. The striker they signed — clinical, physical, relentless — is starting to show up when it matters most.
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