Arsenal have become stronger and stronger under manager Mikel Arteta, and it looks like this year will be another great year for them as they aim to win their first top-flight title in 20 years.
Seven games into the Premier League, the Gunners have set the pace, scoring 16 of their 21 points. Liverpool are now at a disadvantage with a one point difference due to consecutive losses.
New technical director Andrea Berta has managed to bring in some exciting signings in the summer, with Martin Zvimendi and Ebelesi Eze particularly notable.
However, £60m striker Victor Goqueres still leaves something to be desired, despite arriving with much fanfare having enjoyed incredible results in Portugal with back-to-back league champions Sporting Lisbon.
Victor Gokeres’ Arsenal career so far
At least Gokeres knows where the back of the net is. However, his performance over the first few weeks of the campaign was not all that helpful.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has described him as a “battering ram” who can “beat smaller teams”, but there is a sense that he may have some work to do when faced with teams ostensibly of a higher skill level.
But the 27-year-old’s frustrations were not limited to the domestic front, as he missed his first two Champions League appearances as an Arsenal player. Against Athletic Bilbao and Olympiakos, he missed three big chances (data courtesy of Sofascore).
It’s also worth highlighting that the campaign is only two months old. There is plenty of time for this powerful goalscorer to continue adjusting to life as a featured shooter in the Premier League.
As Neville hinted, the contrast between the “misfit” Gokeres and the more technically smooth attacking teammates around him is not necessarily a bad thing, but he will need to hone his overall link-up play.
Ultimately, Gokeres has the talent to be the Gunners’ best centre-forward in years, but looking back at his rivals for the position over the past decade or so, it’s doubtful he’ll take the cake.
In fact, the veteran striker, who once led the team at the Emirates, has started the season even stronger than Arteta’s new core.
Former Arsenal ST surpassed Gokeres
Gokeres isn’t necessarily a spring chicken, but Arsenal have signed strikers of more mature status in the past, which has had an emphatic effect.
Take Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018 for £56m and has scored 92 goals and assisted 21 in just 163 games for the Gunners.
The Gabonese goalscorer may have left the club somewhat unceremoniously, but he left his mark on Arteta’s reign, scoring four goals in the final stages of the 2019/20 FA Cup, producing the Spaniard’s only silverware.
In fact, just a few months after Arteta took over as Emirates manager, Aubameyang rose to the occasion in the semi-final at Wembley, scoring twice to defeat Josep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
Despite arriving midway through the 2019/20 season, Aubameyang hit the ground running in the Premier League, hitting home 10 goals in 13 games on his way to a run of 22 goals in England’s top flight.
He first joined the North London team at the age of 28 and since leaving he has led a storied career over several years. In fact, Aubameyang, who was traded to Marseille this season and is now 36 years old, has recorded four goals and three assists in seven games in all competitions this year.
Quite notably, he is ahead of his positional rival Gökeres. He is almost nine years younger and has scored 97 goals in two seasons in Portugal, including a hat-trick against Man City in last year’s Champions League.
Looking at Arsenal’s top scorers in the Premier League year on year since Aubameyang’s last successful season with Arsenal, it is clear that supporters and critics alike have noted that a lack of quality in the final third is holding back top-flight attacking teams.
Arsenal – Premier League top scorer by season | ||
|---|---|---|
season | player | the goal |
25/26 | victor | 3 |
24/25 | Kai Havertz | 9 |
23/24 | From Bukayo | 16 |
22/23 | Martin Odegaard | 15 |
21/22 | From Bukayo | 11 |
20/21 | alexandre lacazette | 13 |
19/20 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | twenty two |
Statistics via Transfermarkt | ||
It hasn’t been a terrible start, with three goals in the first seven games in the Premier League. However, Gokeres’ performance certainly left something to be desired, as he missed four big chances and completed just 56% of his passes, averaging fewer than six attempts per game.
He may have scored three goals in England’s top flight, but Gokeres still needs to find his groove if he is to match and surpass Aubameyang as the club’s best centre-forward in history.
Whether he will cross that 22-goal threshold this season is open to question, but Arteta will no doubt expect more from his big summer signing, especially given Aubameyang’s movement and how he uses movement and positioning to score goals with a consistency and ferocity that belies his age.
Sky Sports journalist Dougie Critchley marvels at how “one of the best finishers of the last 15 years” is still delivering authentic performances on the big stage.
And given that Aubameyang has outperformed the Swede at Marseille this season, the argument persists that Gökeres is the right fit for the title-challenging side that has been expected over the past few years.