Viktor Gyokeres is no Thierry Henry but he can be the flat-track bully Arsenal need | OneFootball

Close Arsenal’s goal-of-the-season competition now. They have a winner. If, that is, it was the prize for the scruffiest goal.

Gunners of a certain vintage will recall Dennis Bergkamp scoring one of the most artistic, aesthetically pleasing hat-tricks of all, against Leicester in 1997. A younger generation could enjoy Viktor Gyokeres’ distinctly uglier brace against Atletico Madrid, but for rather different reasons.

The cliche is that forwards on goal droughts need one to go in off their backside. Gyokeres saw one go in off David Hancko’s heel, the other via his own thigh. After 624 minutes without a goal, he had two in three, from a combined distance of about six yards.

But they all count and, more than most, Gyokeres can be judged on numbers. Without them, without his 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting CP, he might not be leading the line for Arsenal now.

Five in 12 for his new club sounds rather less spectacular, but significantly better than three in 11 or none in the last seven as it was before kick-off. The Swede’s longest barren spell since his days as a Coventry player was in itself a reminder that, two-and-a-half years ago, he was a Coventry player.

A Championship player at 24, a Champions League striker at 27, perhaps a Premier League winner just before his 28th birthday, Gyokeres’ rise has come later than most.

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Viktor Gyokeres scored twice to end his barren run (PA)

It has added an element of intrigue to an introduction which, at least for those outside the Arsenal dressing room, has felt underwhelming. The No 14 shirt flew out of the club shop in the summer, Arsenal fans projecting their hopes on him. It was Thierry Henry’s number but he is not really Henry’s successor: not spiritually or stylistically. They are different types of spearheads.

Gyokeres could seem an exercise in wishful thinking for those who had pined for a striker. He had no shots at all against Manchester United, Liverpool or Manchester City. His only goals were against a Leeds side who have recently emerged from the Championship and a Nottingham Forest team flirting with a return to the second tier.

In that context, a double against Atletico, Champions League ever-presents, serial top-four finishers in LaLiga, seemed a step forward. Those 97 Sporting goals included a hat-trick against Man City, two of them from the penalty spot, but not too many others against the rest of the European elite. He preyed on the weaker Portuguese clubs.

But then, and while the standard is higher, he was hired to do likewise in England, to help Arsenal win the winnable games. It may be a question not of how, but how many, if he can chalk up a minimum of 20 goals and perhaps even 30 without necessarily oozing class or tormenting the best. All five of Gyokeres’ goals so far have come at the Emirates Stadium and if Atletico are rarely bullied, there is reason to believe that he could be a flat-track bully and that Arsenal needed one.

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Gyokeres could turn into the bully Arsenal need (PA)

The inconvenient observation may be that Gyokeres looked a class below Atletico’s Julian Alvarez for much of Tuesday’s 4-0 win. The reaction of his manager and his teammates when he scored was instructive, though. “He makes us a much better team,” insisted Mikel Arteta. “I think we’ve become much more unpredictable. He’s so physical. The way he presses the ball, holds the ball, that’s phenomenal.”

A day earlier, Mikel Merino had cited an “unbelievable” work rate, too. As an individual, he is not unpredictable but, by dragging defences deeper, Gyokeres can open up space for others. Eberechi Eze could be a particular beneficiary. But there are times when he seems a blunt instrument. The Swede is a willing runner but not particularly quick: not by Premier League standards, anyway, and not until he is really into his stride. Part of his job feels simply distracting defenders.

That job has proved more of a full-time post than Arteta may have anticipated. Outsiders were convinced Arsenal required a specialist centre-forward. The manager may have only thought they required one for certain games. Had Kai Havertz stayed fit, there is a chance he would have begun many of the more demanding tests: Liverpool, City, Newcastle, perhaps Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid too.

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Kai Havertz’s injury has left Arsenal shorn of attacking options (Getty)

A gradual integration for Gyokeres could have made sense. There is increasing evidence that success at Sporting, whether for Gyokeres, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Amorim or Hugo Viana, is imperfect preparation for the Premier League. There is also a case that the forward with the best numbers for his previous club is actually the most limited of those purchased in the Premier League summer spending spree and, at 27, one who may have the least resale value.

Hugo Ekitike looks far more gifted, Nick Woltemade is unique, and Joao Pedro is a player of vast potential. Benjamin Sesko, the other forward Arsenal pursued for a year, is at least younger. Alexander Isak cost more than twice as much.

But, when the final whistle blew on Tuesday, none had more than Gyokeres’ five goals. And, come the end of the season, if none of the others have outscored him, Arsenal could enjoy the sense that it is not how, but how many.