Gary Neville has given a brutally honest verdict on Viktor Gyokeres’ start to his Arsenal career – but the forward quickly answered some of his doubters against Leeds.
Gyokeres signed for Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon for an initial £63.5 million earlier this summer.
He made his first Gunners start in the 1-0 win over Manchester United last Sunday.
The Swede produced a mixed performance in his opening fixture but was selected to start against Leeds, with Kai Havertz absent.
The Gunners went into half-time 2-0 up after goals from Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka.
But Neville, on commentary for Sky Sports, was less than impressed with Gyokeres’ first competitive half at the Emirates Stadium.
He said: “It’s been a struggle. I thought he showed glimpses against United, I thought Matthijs de Ligt marked him brilliantly. Playing at Old Trafford is a tough game. I’m a bit more concerned about today.
“It’s obviously very early in his career, but you can’t let that negativity spiral build.
“The pressure’s on him. People are looking to him to score that 20 goals that will take Arsenal to the title. The scrutiny will be great if it carries on like this. He needs a goal.
“It’s not just the scoring, is it? It’s the general play. Does he look like he’s neat in his game, tidy, bringing people into play, awareness of what’s going on around him? He looks a bit scruffy in his first game and a half.”
In the opening 42 minutes of the half, Gyokeres only had 12 touches of the ball, with two of those in his own box and a further two inside his own half.
In fact, only one touch of the ball was in the opposing penalty area.
However, the half-time interval clearly had a positive impact on the Swede.
It took him three minutes into the second half to score his first goal in an Arsenal shirt.
He picked the ball up on the left flank before driving into the penalty area, past two defenders, and firing the ball into the bottom left corner to make it 3-0 to the Gunners.
Jurrien Timber then added his second after a goalmouth scramble from a corner to make it 4-0 to Arsenal.
Gyokeres then fired home a penalty into the left corner in added time to score his own second goal of the match.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Leeds clash, Arteta described Gyokeres as being in ‘a really good place’ despite failing to hit a shot on target against United.
“I think we are going to be extremely happy when he starts to put the ball in the back of the net very, very often,” he said.
“I think the game [versus United] was very demanding physically, became really, really open for different reasons. And we decided that at that moment he did enough, and we had Kai [to replace him] on the bench to come and change the game.
“But he’s ready to go again. He’s very, very enthusiastic. He trained really well this week, he had another week under his belt. He looks in a really good place.”
