Arsenal told why Viktor Gyokeres still faces 'major problem' despite Chelsea heroics: 'I would go ballistic' | OneFootball

Key issue remains for Gunners striker after impressive display in Carabao Cup semi-final tie

Bukayo Saka’s style of play is a “major problem” for Viktor Gyokeres at Arsenal, according to Jamie Redknapp.

Though the Swedish striker has received consistent praise from manager Mikel Arteta and his team-mates for his impact on games in other areas, his goal record and general performances against top-level opposition have been repeatedly questioned by pundits.

Gyokeres had scored just once in his last 10 games across all competitions for Arsenal ahead of Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg tie against Chelsea, but delivered an impressive display at Stamford Bridge as he profited from a second Robert Sanchez error to double the visitors’ lead shortly after half-time and later held the ball up well and assisted Martin Zubimendi’s effort in a pulsating 3-2 win.

And while Redknapp fully acknowledged arguably the ex-Coventry talisman’s best outing to date since his return to English football, he believes Arteta’s deployment of his wingers is a key issue for him moving forward.

“This was a good night for him, exceptional night,” Redknapp said of Gyokeres in his role as a pundit on Sky Sports. “But I can imagine, and I can’t lie, I wasn’t watching him at Sporting every single week.

“But a lot of the time, the crosses he would have been getting, with the system they played with two wing-backs, predominantly, would have been a right-footed right wing-back and a left-footed left wing-back.

“So he gets crosses. Once that ball gets wide, they are coming into him and he knows he can make that first run across the post and get in there.

“When he plays for Arsenal, the major problem is Bukayo Saka plays on the right, he’s left-footed. [Gabriel] Martinelli, the same. He wants to cut back on his right foot.

“So when Bukayo Saka gets into that position to start with instead of firing it across the face [of goal], he wants to chop back. So that’s where the frustration comes.”

Redknapp’s point was illustrated by Gyokeres’ initially visibly frustrated reaction to not receiving the ball from Saka in the build-up to his goal against Chelsea, as the England winger first cut inside off the right flank onto his left foot before checking back and releasing an overlapping Ben White, whose low cross was tapped home by Gyokeres from close range after Sanchez failed to hold onto the ball.

“Rightly so, he gets upset that the ball doesn’t get there,” said Redknapp’s fellow Sky Sports pundit Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. “I would go absolutely ballistic.”