Viktor Gyokeres endured an Arsenal debut to forget against Manchester United, but former Gunners star Ian Wright has now hit back at those who criticised the striker
Arsenal icon Ian Wright has slammed the “two-bob centre-forwards” who laid into Viktor Gyokeres after the Swede drew a blank in the Gunners win over Manchester United. Gyokeres, 27, made a £63.7million move to the Emirates Stadium and now carries the hopes of Arsenal fans that he can fire them to the Premier League title after three consecutive second-placed finishes.
However, Gyokeres was hooked after an hour at Old Trafford in Arsenal’s 1-0 victory and failed to register a shot on target. It’s unfamiliar territory for the Swede, who scored 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting CP.
Arsenal’s new forward naturally drew criticism from a section of pundits for his sub-par performance and in the days afterwards. Boss Mikel Arteta also claimed the striker has work to do to integrate with his new team-mates. However, speaking on Arsenal podcast, ‘Arsecast‘, Wright fired back at Gyokeres’ naysayers, and has fully backed the striker to succeed in north London.
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“What I would say to him, bro, embrace this,” Wright said. “Because I tell you, Viktor Gyokeres being part of Arsenal winning the title again after so many years, with the pressure he’s under now, the discourse… the people I’m seeing, two-bob centre forwards on whatever it is – I won’t mention where they are – talking about him like, yeah, he’s a flat-track bully, whatever it is, it means f*** all, because he’s where he wants to be.
“Now, it’s up to him, go and get it. Just go and get it.”
Wright believes once Gyokeres’ assimilates with the squad further, it will be a matter of when – and not if – that he discovers his scoring boots at Arsenal.
Wright added: “I think that obviously as a striker, and I’ve been there, and I’m going to Arsenal, in that first game, you’d probably want to show a little bit of what you’re capable of – get a chance, half chance, maybe take it if you’re fortunate.
“And even if you play like Viktor Gyokeres played against United, and he didn’t really show much, if we’re going to be totally honest, we saw good running into the channels, good strength and stuff like that.
“But in respect of what we’re going to need, we didn’t really see that. Now, that’s a combination of him getting used to the team, the team getting used to him, and Man United causing us a lot of problems.
“Viktor Gyokeres has got to understand he’s now at the place and, this is what I had to realise with Arsenal, he’s now at the place where all that work, all that ignoring of him when he was scoring goals in different places thinking he’s going to get the move, get the next move to get to where he wants to be. All that is done, because now he’s at the place. So now it’s on Viktor.”
On his own journey to Arsenal and how he dealt with the pressure of his own big switch, moving from Crystal Palace to Arsenal in 1991, Wright said: “I’ve never felt so afraid and Viktor will be feeling the same. But then it’s down to you to draw on that, the hard work, the ignoring of you, the fact that people don’t think that you’re as good as you think you are.
“And you’ve got to continue to do that in the dark. He’s here, so it’s now up to him to go out there and show what all that hard work is about.
“So I would say to him, even if he scored and got taken off, it’d still be for me something where he’d say, ‘Well, I’m pleased I scored there, but like, okay, I could do better,’ but the team weren’t functioning as well. He’s just got to go back into the headspace of what he does when his chances do come.”
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