In Arsenal’s opening Premier League match of the season, Mikel Arteta opted to start Viktor Gyokeres against Manchester United.
Before the match, Theo Walcott expected Arsenal to start Kai Havertz – he was convinced that Arteta would ease Viktor Gyokeres into things.
However, the Arsenal manager decided to be big and bold at Old Trafford – Ruben Amorim’s former striker was thrown straight into the deep end.
And whilst Gyokeres proved his strength in shielding the ball against United’s defence, particularly against Mathijs de Ligt, he did lack a bit of finesse to his general play.
Of course, Gyokeres was also being compared to Benjamin Sesko during Arsenal’s 1-0 win, given that the Gunners nearly bought the Slovenian instead.
That being said, Rio Ferdinand gave his immediate reaction to Gyokeres’ full Arsenal debut on his YouTube channel shortly after full-time.
Ferdinand had already seen talk of Gyokeres not being the right signing for Arsenal following his debut, but the pundit wasn’t a fan of such early conclusions.
He said: “I’ve seen some of the comments, people saying Gyokeres doesn’t look the part – early in the season, give him five or six games minimum, just to get up to speed.
“Give him time to get up to speed fitness-wise, he’s got to get fit! He probably hasn’t trained with a team since he got to Arsenal because he demanded to leave – bit like Isak now, he won’t be training with the team, he’ll be on his own [at Newcastle].
“The depth now, Havertz coming on, Arsenal have a real opportunity now.”
Following those comments, Ferdinand then shared his exciting conclusion about fellow new signing Martin Zubimendi, who played the full 90 minutes against United.
Ian Wright has talked up Zubimendi in the past, and Ferdinand was now convinced that Arsenal had recruited a gamechanger.
He continued: “I think Zubimendi is a massive signing, he’s a controller, he’s a conductor who will take the ball anywhere.
“He’ll get you lot playing, and what I like about him coming in is he actually frees up Declan Rice to now be more attack minded – he didn’t get the ball today, but he made a lot of forward runs.”
A promising start for Arsenal, who earned three points without being at their best against a spirited United side.
