Viktor Gyokeres has another element to his game that Arsenal fans haven’t even seen yet

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Viktor Gyokeres is yet to show a side of his game at Arsenal that made him so effective at Sporting.

The Swede has found the back of the net five times in his first 12 appearances for the Gunners across all competitions, a return that is looked at as somewhat disappointing given his goal-scoring pedigree.

However, Gyokeres did end his seven-match goal drought with a brace against Atletico Madrid, and fans are starting to value the hard work he puts in off the ball.

That said, most of the 27-year-old’s impressive work has been his running and sprints in behind, rather than what he’s actually doing with the ball at his feet.

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Viktor Gyokeres had excellent creative numbers at Sporting

There is a perception around Gyokeres that he’s merely a poacher who waits for the ball to come to him inside the box. He’s actually much more than that.

The striker registered 26 assists across all competitions in his two seasons at Sporting, and he wasn’t running hot on these numbers.

Gyokeres was putting up around 0.23 expected assists per 90 minutes in the Primeira Liga, a number most creative midfielders would be happy to produce.

He was also averaging 1.96 key passes per 90 minutes, clearly indicating that he was a creative outlet for the Portuguese giants.

However, this hasn’t translated at all in English football. Gyokeres currently sits on 0.04 expected assists and 0.65 key passes per 90 in the Premier League, while he’s yet to register his first assist in an Arsenal shirt.

In Portugal, the former Coventry City man would regularly burst into wide areas and receive passes in these channels, before manipulating the ball in a way which would allow him to cut the ball back for an on-rushing teammate.

Most of his chance creation came from cut-backs at the byline, areas Arsenal simply haven’t been able to get him into so far.

How do Arsenal get more out of Viktor Gyokeres creatively?

Gyokeres is running into the channels exceptionally for Arsenal.

However, these runs aren’t turning into him having the ball at his feet and making things happen. It’s difficult to know whether this is a result of instructions given to him by Mikel Arteta or because he’s simply not as capable against a higher standard of defender.

Nevertheless, there are certainly things that the Gunners can do to get more out of the Sweden international creatively.

The key to unlocking these attributes is finding him in space in the channels early. Releasing Gyokeres into these areas, isolating him one-on-one with defenders he’s quicker than and then making sure one of the wingers is breaking their neck to arrive in the box, will allow him to flourish.

He has the ability to create separation from a defender by pure brute force, while he showed at Sporting that he also has a quality final ball in his repertoire.

Arteta must start working on this to elicit a higher level from the striker.