Gyokeres blows huge Arsenal chance with nine-touch nightmare at Napoli | OneFootball

Viktor Gyokeres might have just endured his bleakest night in an Arsenal shirt.

Not only did Arsenal score almost instantly after he was substituted against Napoli, but Gyokeres was scarcely involved despite the Premier League champions having a vast number of goalscoring opportunities and the vast majority of the ball.

In 73 minutes, Gyokeres registered a mere nine touches, three in the opposition box, had zero shots and attempted no dribbles, yet somehow managed to create four chances with the limited possession he did have.

He was always going to start on Wednesday as the Gunners travelled to Naples after three consecutive Premier League matches on the bench, coming on against Chelsea on Sunday for his first minutes of the season. With Kai Havertz performing very well up front, it was a big night for the big Swede. He absolutely did not take his chance, as the statistics suggest.

It was a very wasteful Arsenal performance, with effort after effort blazed over the bar, yet you’d be forgiven for thinking Gyokeres, Arsenal’s centre-forward, wasn’t on the pitch. How can your No.9 be so anonymous and register no shots in a game in which your team had 13 by half-time?

It felt like Gyokeres was miles away from displacing Havertz before Wednesday’s Champions League match against Napoli. It’s now laughable to suggest that is a possibility.

It might have been a chastening evening for Gyokeres, but not quite as chastening as it was for the Napoli defence.

You could be fooled into believing Napoli defended well given the fact Arsenal’s only goal didn’t come until the 75th minute. They didn’t. They constantly gave up big chances and didn’t even have particularly impressive goalkeeping to thank, from Alex Meret in the first half and then Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in the second.

Arsenal were shamefully wasteful.

Bukayo Saka’s one-on-one miss over the bar was extraordinary. Piero Hincapie’s volley from yards out went miles over. And the ball from Christos Tzolis’ volley came down with snow on it.

When Arsenal weren’t blazing the ball over, they were shooting straight at the goalkeeper. Meret had some comfortable saves to make – one from Ben White comes to mind – and did make a very good stop to deny Mikel Merino. It was straight at him, but the reactions were top class.

There was only one good finish all night, and one good finish was all it took for Arsenal to win their league-phase opener.

Minutes after Gyokeres left the pitch, Arsenal’s flying captain Martin Odegaard scored his fourth goal of the season and his second match-winner in four days.

It was a fantastic long-range strike that crashed off the inside of the post to give Milinkovic-Savic no chance, and the only real bit of quality produced all night by either side.

Napoli’s game plan was clear to see and they had the right striker for their counter-attacking threat in Rasmus Hojlund, who possesses the pace and hold-up play to be a nuisance.

The former Manchester United striker couldn’t do much against such a strong defensive unit and David Raya was very rarely tested, though he did have a rare Kevin De Bruyne brain fart to thank for a late spurned chance.

For once, the Belgian made the wrong decision at the biggest moment, opting to square to nobody rather than shoot with his left foot with the goal at his mercy.

Ultimately, Arsenal got away with one. Their finishing was extremely poor, with the exception of one ambitious Odegaard effort, and they really ought to have been punished for being so careless.

The only attacking player who can hold his head up after that one is Odegaard, whose form this season has been tremendous. Last season, he only scored one goal. He already has four this campaign, including the Community Shield.

Odegaard has a huge season ahead if he continues this way. His improvement has been remarkable and something Gyokeres must replicate if he is going to pay back the £64m spent on him last summer.

We can’t see a way back into Mikel Arteta’s strongest XI for Gyokeres. That was bleak. Nine touches? Really? Zero shots? When your team managed 25 in total? Come on…