Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres and the importance of confidence

Emirates Stadium, Sunday evening: the clock read 66 minutes and the scoreboard 1-0 when Viktor Gyokeres peeled away from his marker, took a clever pass from Kai Havertz and steered a low shot beyond the Sunderland goalkeeper. Six minutes earlier the Swede had been sitting beside the advertising hoardings, waiting for the fourth official’s board to flip; now he was sprinting toward the Arsenal fans, arms outstretched, the stadium roaring in collective relief. By the 82nd minute he had added a second, converting a Gabriel Martinelli cut-back to seal a 3-0 win that lifts Arsenal level on points with the league leaders and, perhaps more importantly, lifts the €63.5 million striker to a level he has been chasing since last summer.

The brace took Gyokeres to six goals since the turn of the year—no Premier League player has more—and eight goal contributions in as many matches across all competitions. Yet the numbers only hint at the narrative arc. After five goals, only two from open play, in his first 20 appearances, the 27-year-old was beginning to look like an expensive misfit. A muscular injury on matchday 10 interrupted a run of seven full 90-minute shifts in the opening nine league fixtures, and when Mikel Merino was pushed forward in his absence, questions grew louder: was the former Sporting CP sharpshooter suited to the physical and tactical demands of English football?

Arsenal’s recent form suggests the answer is an emphatic yes. Seven goals without reply in back-to-back league games against Leeds United and Sunderland have arrived at the precise moment last season’s runners-up needed to reassert title credentials. Gyokeres scored in both fixtures—starting at Elland Road and finishing from the bench on Sunday—yet the contrast in settings underlines the adaptability Arteta is coaxing from his record signing.

Against Leeds it was Gabriel Jesus who drifted wide and dragged centre-backs with him, creating the lane for Gyokeres to attack. Against Sunderland the gamestate was different: a single-goal cushion, a deep block, and the requirement for a finisher capable of finding half-chances in compressed space. Havertz’s ghosting movement between the lines offered the “company” Arteta referenced afterwards, while Martinelli’s directness from the right, deputising for the injured Bukayo Saka, provided the cut-back for the clincher.

Arteta, speaking pitch-side, pinpointed the intangible element now fuelling the turnaround. “That’s the magic word—confidence,” he said. “When you feel confident, when you feel important, when you feel at your best, that’s when you can really take your game to the highest level.” The Spaniard revealed that Gyokeres has begun “to speak up and demand the kind of movement, the kind of balls and deliveries that he wants,” a sign that the striker is no longer merely acclimatising but dictating.

The manager’s trust in his bench has become a defining feature of the campaign. Arsenal top the Premier League for goal contributions by substitutes with 16; Noni Madueke’s goal and assist in last week’s win at Leeds came after a late reshuffle forced by Saka’s hip issue, and Gyokeres’ double maintains the theme. “When he got the line-up and he wasn’t in, everybody reacts in such a way because we experience every three days how important the finishers are,” Arteta added. “The impact they are having on the team, results and where we are, so I’m very happy.”

Sunday’s victory also nudged Arsenal toward a more comfortable match profile. On 30 December they led by a solitary goal entering the final 15 minutes in a league-high eight fixtures, a recipe for late anxiety. They still hold that tally, but the number of two-goal advantages has risen from six to nine—second only to Manchester City—after Gyokeres’ 66th-minute strike effectively removed tension from the closing stages.

The striker’s own trajectory mirrors the collective. His first touch on Sunday was heavy; his second, a cushioned lay-off under pressure, was immaculate. The confidence gleaned from that moment settled him, and within 60 seconds he had scored. By full-time he had completed 94 percent of his passes, won three aerial duels and, crucially, taken care of possession in areas where earlier in the season he might have been dispossessed.

Arteta will hope the upward curve is only beginning. With Havertz back, Jesus fit again and Martinelli deputising ably for Saka, Arsenal finally possess the attacking depth required for a sustained title push. The manager’s challenge now is to keep Gyokeres believing—whether he starts or arrives with the game in the balance—that his next touch will be decisive.

On this evidence, the confidence is flowing both ways.