Viktor Gyokeres will be desperate to keep his recent uptick in form going when Arsenal take on Man United this weekend and he might well have more incentive than ever to perform.
Gyokeres eventually landed at Arsenal after being linked with a number of clubs over the summer.
One of those clubs was Man United, who along with the likes of Benjamin Sesko and more, had Gyokeres on a long list of potential signings.
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As we all know, United opted for Sesko, Bryan Mbuemo and Matheus Cunha in the end as Arsenal were given a free run at Gyokeres.
However, it seems that while Arsenal celebrated landing Gyokeres, United’s swerve was intentional.
Why Manchester United didn’t want to sign Viktor Gyokeres
Poor old Viktor Gyokeres is under enough pressure this season it seems and ahead of facing United, it seems they had a big issue with him while at Sporting Lisbon.
Despite scoring countless goals and being one of Europe’s most lethal strikers, United and other clubs have access to countless reams of data.
And according to Miguel Delaney, that data showed a big problem for United when it came to Gyokeres’ finishing.
“So while United did like Gyokeres, they felt he had good ability and obviously there was the Amorim connection. One of the reasons they didn’t really pursue that was because, from what I’m told, their analytics showed or some of the studies showed that a lot of the goals he got in Portugal with Sporting, the data suggested that a lot of them would have been saved by Premier League-level goalkeepers,” Delaney revealed.
“Similarly, I heard that at Chelsea, that was linked to how there were some doubts about whether he could get the ball out from under his feet quick enough in the area.”
Viktor Gyokeres compared to Benjamin Sesko this season
While Gyokeres hasn’t set the world alight for the Gunners, it’s also worth pointing out that United’s big signing, Benjamin Sesko, hasn’t done half as much.
So far, Gyokeres has nine goals in all competitions in just 20 games, which really isn’t a bad return despite the critics.
His expected goals is 8.1, meaning he is outperforming that metric as well.
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As for Sesko, he only has five goals and a single assist in 23 appearances, with an xG of just 6.2, meaning he is not only underperforming but not even necessarily missing or getting the chances to add to it.
With this comparison, it looks like Arsenal have got the better striker and it will be interesting come the end of next season to see how the land lies.
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