Thierry Henry is already annoyed that Viktor Gyokeres may not get the patience he needs to settle at Arsenal. The Gunners finally secured a deal for the Swedish striker earlier this summer, having agreed a deal that could reach £64million with his former club Sporting Lisbon.
And a lot of hopes have already been pinned on him, with Arsenal having needed a new centre-forward for the past three campaigns. Gyokeres will certainly hope to enjoy a quick start to life in North London as Arsenal kick-off their Premier League campaign against Manchester United on Sunday.
While Henry has sympathy should that not happen, he believes that Gyokeres will not be given time to find his best form by fans. He said: “He already was in England, let’s not forget that. He was at Coventry, he couldn’t do it at Brighton. So, you can see a guy who already knows what struggling is and comes back from that.
“He’s more confident, and you can see from his body the way he’s looked after himself, the way he’s changed. You have a guy that’s a killer in the box – numbers don’t lie – and you have a team that creates a lot of chances, so it should be the perfect match.
“It’s always unfair when I talk about a striker, it brings an unnecessary pressure because it goes above and beyond. What you want is people to be patient with him, and what is annoying right now is that people are not that patient anymore.
“They want the guy to perform straight away, score goals straight away and make us win straight away, which doesn’t happen often. Sometimes it doesn’t click straight away. I love when people show me what they can do, and then I can talk. Right now, people love to talk before the performance.
“I’m an Arsenal fan, I obviously hope he’s going to do well, bang goals for us, and guide us to a title, but he’s not going to do that alone. We have seen that goals don’t always assure you a title. We’ve seen guys with mad numbers, but they didn’t win anything. The team around them has to be good.
“From what I’ve seen from him and how he finishes, hopefully it’s going to be a great match and we can finally go back to lift that trophy. But, a lot of teams want to lift that.”
Gyokeres comes into his debut Arsenal season off the back of a sensational spell with Sporting Lisbon. The 27-year-old scored 97 goals in just 102 appearances in all competitions for the Portuguese giants.
He has already been on target for his new employers in pre-season, having netted an eye-catching header in the Emirates Cup victory against Spanish side Athletic Bilbao.
