Arsenal beat Brighton on Saturday afternoon to restore their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Manchester City’s early victory against Nottingham Forest put Pep Guardiola’s side top of the table, but a win for Arsenal later in the day put the Gunners back on top.
Arsenal came away with all three points, but there were some concerning performances on the day, and, sadly, once again, Viktor Gyokeres was in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Gyokeres has struggled since arriving in the Premier League, and while he scored the winning goal last week against Everton from the penalty spot, he was not good here.
Gyokeres’ stats on the day tell the story of just how poor he was.
Viktor Gyokeres stats vs Brighton
Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres this summer to be the focal point of their attack, but, so far this season, far too often, he has been anonymous.
On Saturday, that was once again the case as the striker didn’t make much happen at all.
Gyokeres proved to be easy to stop, and he just couldn’t get involved in the game.
How concerned are you by Viktor Gyokeres’ performance vs Brighton
Gyokeres had two shots, made six passes – half of which were inaccurate, while he had 17 touches, being dispossessed three times within those 17 touches.
With two shots – neither of which went in, three misplaced passes and three dispossessions, Gyokeres technically gave the ball away with eight of his 17 touches on the day, and, quite simply, that is terrible.
To make matters worse, he also missed a big chance early in the game.
Viktor Gyokeres’ early miss summed his performance up
Within a minute of the game starting, Viktor Gyokeres missed a big chance for Arsenal.
The striker had a great chance early on as a bouncing ball found its way into his path with the goalkeeper 10 yards or so off his line.
It was a simple enough chance for any striker to loop the bouncing ball over the goalkeeper into the back of the net.
However, instead, Gyokeres simply passed the ball to Bart Verbruggen – a sign of any striker lacking in confidence.
If you could go back in time and sign another striker for Arsenal instead of Viktor Gyokeres, who would it be and why?
Paul Merson summed up this miss perfectly on Soccer Saturday.
“Gyokeres is in, the goalkeeper is in no man’s land all he has to do is side foot it, it’s as simple as the simplest if chances, he’s mis-kicked it and it’s fallen down at the keeper’s legs,” Merson said.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity, he’s struggling at the moment Gyokeres and he has to score that, it’s his bread and butter.”
Gyokeres is way off it at the moment, and with Kai Havertz back in training, it may not be long before he loses his place in the Arsenal starting XI.
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