‘Bottom of the pile’ – Arteta told to drop ’embarrassing’ Arsenal player after win over Chelsea | OneFootball

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been urged to drop Viktor Gyokeres after his “embarrassing” performance against Chelsea on Tuesday night.

Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game in the seventh minute of second-half injury time as the Gunners beat the Blues to secure their place in the League Cup final at Wembley.

The German’s goal put the icing on the cake to give Arsenal a 4-2 aggregate win after beating Chelsea 3-2 in the semi-final first leg at Stamford Bridge in January.

Gyokeres, who is the Gunners’ top goalscorer in all competitions, started his 25th match in all competitions this season but he was criticised by a trio of ESPN pundits despite Arsenal beating Chelsea on the night.

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol, former Arsenal midfielder Stewart Robson and three-time MLS Cup winner Alejandro Moreno all criticised the Sweden international’s display.

Nicol told ESPN: “Viktor Gyokeres has been giving six months now. Mikel Arteta has giving him six months to separate himself from [Gabriel] Jesus, [Kai] Havertz and [Mikel] Merino.

“I was trying to defend him at the start because the way Arsenal play isn’t exactly helpful for a centre forward but I still thought he was good enough to score goals.

“I thought he was good enough to get some goals out of nothing but so far he hasn’t been able to do any of those things and he hasn’t been able to separate himself from Jesus, Havertz or Merino.

“So if you’re Mikel Arteta before every game you’ve got a decision to make. Gyokeres should actually probably be going to the back of the queue now because you have to contribute somewhere and he’s not at the moment.

“With Jesus and Havertz, they absolutely contribute outside of the box. So I said he hasn’t separated himself from the other forwards, he might actually be at the bottom of the pile right now.”

When asked whether Gyokeres’ display versus Chelsea will renew discussion over his place in Mikel Arteta’s side, Robson replied: “It certainly does because Gyokeres once again did only okay.

“The commentator said he only touched the ball once in the first 30 minutes and that tells you he either wasn’t making enough runs or his teammates weren’t looking forward enough.

“It’s probably both but you want him to be more involved in the game, he’s got to run the channels and be stronger when the ball comes up to him.

“When the ball went the other way Joao Pedro did more than Gyokeres did, he doesn’t seem to be able to hold the ball up at the moment and bring others into play whereas Joao Pedro did it quite often for Chelsea.

“There’s still some work for him to do. Last year we were saying Kai Havertz isn’t a good enough centre forward but maybe he goes back to that role because Gyokeres hasn’t done good enough.

“We said they didn’t win the title because they haven’t got a proper centre forward, they’ve got one now who cost a lot of money but he’s not quite at the races.

“I think Jesus probably starts against Sunderland if he’s fit. He’s a confidence player and he’s scored a few goals recently and looks sharp and hungry.

“Gyokeres is okay at a lot of things but I don’t think he’s better than the others.”

Moreno continued: “That heat map is embarrassing. He played for 69 minutes and had 10 touches and only one completed pass.

“I understand Arsenal do not play through their centre forward but the heat map tells you his movement isn’t all that sharp or abundant. That’s embarrassing, ten touches.

“Maybe he’s getting frustrated and is stop making runs but that’s the worse thing a centre forward can do. There isn’t a whole lot of movement with Gyokeres, it’s an embarrassing heat map.”