Lineker urges Arteta to drop Arsenal star ahead of Champions League match vs Leverkusen | OneFootball

Former England and Tottenham striker Gary Lineker reckons Kai Havertz would be a better choice than Viktor Gyokeres for Arsenal going forward.

The Gunners have been in amazing form this season with Mikel Arteta’s side still in all competitions ahead of the last couple of months of the season.

Spending over £250m on new additions in the summer has given Arsenal the depth of squad to compete on all four fronts and an unlikely Quadruple is still on the cards.

Gyokeres has been criticised for his lack of impact on matches as more was expected of the Sweden international after his big summer move from Sporting CP, where he scored almost a goal a game.

The Arsenal striker has come up with some big goals, including one in the 2-0 win over Everton, but Lineker would like to see Havertz up top more often.

Lineker said on the Rest Is Football Podcast: “I look at Arsenal and it’s hard to be too critical because they’ve done so well this season.

“But I still think they’re a bit short up top. I prefer Kai Havertz up there, personally, if he can get and stay fit. He’s more of a false nine but he gives them a bit more I think.

“It’s one to watch but Arsenal are going better than everybody else right now, they’re in a fabulous position in terms of being in all four competitions.”

Max Dowman got the second goal of the match against Everton to secure all three points for Arsenal, becoming the youngster scorer in Premier League history and Lineker thought it was his “Rooney moment”.

Lineker added: “I mean, wow. I was saying at the time, it was one of those when you could say, ‘I was there’. It was almost his Rooney moment. We’ve known about him for some time, his reputation is good, we’ve seen him come on, we saw him in the cup and he played really well – probably the best player on the pitch.

“This was a big game, he came on and made the difference. A brilliant cross for the first goal, all game I was crying out for people to get the ball into the box and something may happen, rather than keep turning it over, down the left and then back down the right. But he came on and put in a Lamine Yamal cross, Pickford made, for him, a rare error.

“And then that moment was very special at the end when Pickford went up for a corner, it broke away and it built, he had the awareness to head the ball away, turned away and ran. Everyone knew it was going to be a goal and everyone was cheering before he put it in. What a talent. The youngest player to ever score.”

Arsenal head into the second leg of their last-16 Champions League clash against Bayer Leverkusen drawing 1-1 but the Gunners have home advantage on Tuesday.

When asked what he expects from Leverkusen in north London in midweek, Arteta told reporters: “Watching them play against Bayern Munich at the weekend, very similar.

“Really well coached, clear structure. We know what we have to do in front of our crowd. Hopefully we are going to do it.

“A lot of factors will contribute for us to be in the quarter-finals. We need to have every element in our favour to achieve that.

“They have a lot of quality individually in a lot of areas of the pitch, and as every team they have their strengths, their weaknesses, and we will try to target them.”