Richards tells Arsenal to drop ‘disappointing’ star vs Man Utd as £45m player ‘needs to play now’ | OneFootball

Micah Richards and Alan Shearer have explained why they think Arsenal need to drop summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, who has not been “offering enough”.

Gyokeres joined Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon in the 2025 summer transfer window in a deal worth around £64m.

The Swedish international was recruited as a supposed fix for Arsenal‘s striker problems, but he has massively underperformed this season as he’s struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League.

Gyokeres has only scored one Premier League goal in his last ten matches and his general play has also been really disappointing as he has made very little impact this season.

Over the weekend, Gyokeres was taken off after 57 minutes as the Gunners were held to a goalless draw against Nottingham Forest.

Now, Richards has called for head coach Mikel Arteta to select £45m forward Gabriel Jesus over Gyokeres ahead of this weekend’s match against Manchester United.

“I think they need to play Gabriel Jesus now,” Richards said on The Rest is Football podcast.

“Mikel Arteta has stuck with Gyokeres – I’m not sure if he’s struggling with confidence or struggling to adapt to a new league, I know he’s played in the Championship but the Premier League is a different beast.

“All of the clips I watched of Gyokeres last season, I remember saying that Arsenal fans shouldn’t expect him to be a world-beater but what he did have was that aggressive run in behind.

“But he’s not doing the same thing now and that worries me. Maybe he needs a couple of games out of the team and to get his confidence back before coming back in.

“There was a moment against Forest where he should have gone through but as a defender you think you can get back because he’s lacking confidence and his touch isn’t going to be right. Even if he went through you’re not fancying him to score at the minute.

“I know he scored in the cup game but there’s not been a big moment for him yet where he’s scored an unbelievable goal to give him the confidence that he’s going to go on a run.

“So maybe take him out of the firing line for a little bit and then bringing him back in might be the best thing for the team.”

Gary Lineker “agreed” with Richards, while Shearer doesn’t think the striker “offered enough” against Nottm Forest.

“I thought Gyokeres was disappointing, he didn’t offer enough,” Shearer added.

“There was a moment in the first half when he was one v one with a defender and I was waiting for him to knock the ball across him to make the defender foul him.

“But he just couldn’t get away with him, he looked very leggy. I was really surprised at how he let the defend control the situation.”