When does patience with Gyökeres run out?

Man United getting done over by Brighton was a bit funny last night, wasn’t it, eh? I saw the Sesko ‘assist’. Ouch. That won’t make good viewing when they get in the video room for the post-match analysis today/tomorrow.

As for us, in the next round, it’s a relatively kind away one at Fleetwood Town. Got to be happy with that.

I see that a few people have said that he ‘isn’t the one’, but I still think his ceiling and what he could bring to this Arsenal team is more than what we’ve got from Gyokeres. Maybe not last season, because Big Vik, to his credit, bagged 21 goals in all comps, and it was great to see him on that final day doing his ‘carry the trophy and whistle’ thing that he’s become quite used to over the last few years. But Tuesday night’s performance had me the most worried I’ve been since he joined the club. For the Napoli game, you can sort of dismiss it; it’s Champions League, they were low-blocking us, it was tightly congested spaces, and he didn’t get much of a sniff. But on Tuesday night I saw a guy who didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as his teammates, was flat-footed on a few occasions, wasn’t making those runs in front of his marker in the box, and pretty much didn’t look too engaged in the game at all.

At some stage in a player’s Arsenal career, when they don’t make it, I usually find myself having a game in which I think, ‘that was the one’. It’s a game in which my unwavering support finally goes from “come on mate, I trust and believe in you”, to “this isn’t going to work. I can’t remember the exact game, but I remember that happening with Henrikh Mkhitaryan when he joined us. I’d seen him at Dortmund and thought, “what a player he’d be at The Arsenal”. He went to United; it didn’t quite work out, so when he came to us I thought, “Wenger will be able to help him rediscover his form”. And I think it started well enough. But slowly over time it became clear that it wasn’t working, and there came a point in time in which I just switched and started writing about how we just couldn’t have him in the team any more. He became a hindrance rather than a help. His output dwindled, and then your heart would sink when his name was on the teamsheet.

I think that Ipswich game on Tuesday might have been the beginning of the end for me, in terms of Big Vik, sadly. And I don’t want to be saying this, by the way; I want him to be a viable option in attack. But his contribution on Tuesday was so paltry that along with the Napoli game, I’m now seriously worried about our reliance on Kai. I guess if you’re going to take the ‘rough with the smooth’, you can say that Merino looked fabulous and maybe we have him as a viable backup option, but Gyokeres just feels miles off it at the moment.well.

It’s still early days, maybe if he gets a goal his confidence can build up, but the numbers don’t make for good reading. He’s only played 190 minutes in four matches in all competitions, but he had 18 touches against Ipswich, I think it was nine against Napoli, and he’s mustered just one shot I think. I’ve seen people suggest that he might be a guy who is a bit like a diesel engine, i.e. that he takes a while to get up to speed, but if you’re Arteta, you’re not going to hang around and give him half a dozen games to get his shooting boots on. This is elite competition; time waits for no man.

And that’s probably where my biggest worry comes from. If he were coming on for 15 minutes, getting in and about teams, having runs at worn-down defenders, maybe even bagging a scabby goal, then I could see a future for him as an impact player. But his cameos so far have just been…well…a bit ‘meh’, haven’t they?

Who knows, maybe this weekend will give him an opportunity off the bench. Brighton like to be ball-dominant; they like to win the ball back higher up the pitch and press, which will create gaps for our attacking players. And if we’re entering the last 15 minutes, maybe there’s more space for him to be put in behind. But as it stands today, Thursday, I’m not wholly confident that he would take the chances offered to him.

Something else I think I’ve noticed, but I’m not 100% confident in as a working theory: I don’t think his teammates want to pass the ball too him. I kind of get it, particularly if you know it isn’t going to stick, you’re going to pick a safer option. But there were times on Tuesday when he was open for a little ’round-the-corner’ progressive ball, but instead the midfielders just chose other options. And quite often when you see players do things like that, it kind of tells its own story. If players aren’t playing the ball to you, they’re letting you know what they think with their feet.

Let me be clear once again: I really want to see Big Vik get goals. If that’s what is his super power, then let’s have it. Let’s have him not involved in games, but making runs and getting into space. I feel like last season we did see some of those runs, but often he just wasn’t being found. Has he given up making those runs because he thinks his teammates won’t play him in behind? I’m not so sure. Bruno is brand new, and if you make a run, he’s the kind of guy who would rather game with that progressive pass than not. But I didn’t see too much of that on Tuesday. Tzolis, too, looks like a guy who is always looking for that pass and he’s made mutiple assists already this season. But he too hasn’t really been finding the Swede. Perhaps we just need a bigger sample size, but at some stage, we’re going to see more from Gyokeres.

Catch you all tomorrow as we prep for Brighton.