THERE was a moment – two moments, actually – in Arsenal’s defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season that perfectly encapsulated why so many believe the Gunners need a new number nine. 

With Arsenal pushing for a goal to go ahead in the game, Bukayo Saka got to the byline and sent a ball across the six-yard box. Nobody in red and white gambled and PSG survived. Five minutes later, the exact same thing happened again and Saka threw up his arms in exasperation. There should have been someone in the middle to finish.

Arsenal lost over two legs to PSG and finished the 2024/25 season trophyless. Mikel Arteta and the decision makers at the Emirates Stadium, however, clearly remembered those moments when the lack of a natural centre forward cost the Gunners. It’s why the capture of such a player has been such a focus this summer.

Viktor Gyokeres might have finished one of those chances against PSG. He certainly made a habit of finding the back of the net for Sporting CP, scoring an incredible 54 times in all competitions last season. Arsenal are counting on Gyokeres carrying this scoring rate into English football with the Swede expected to join the North London club in the coming days.

Gyokeres could be a big success at Arsenal. His all-round game is solid with the 27-year-old good enough on the ball to hold his own in a team that likes to control possession. Gyokeres will certainly give the Gunners the sort of physicality and penalty box presence they have missed at the head of their forward line.

By choosing Gyokeres to be their new centre forward, though, Arsenal are taking a risk. They aren’t the first club to have bet big on an attacker who has scored for fun in Portugal and the recent track record of such players in the Premier League and Europe’s other Big Five leagues suggests Gyokeres might struggle to replicate his form for his new team.

Darwin Nunez, for example, scored 26 goals in just 28 league games for Benfica before making the £64m switch to Liverpool in the summer of 2022. In the Premier League, though, the Uruguayan has notched just 25 times in 95 appearances and has struggled for consistency throughout his time on Merseyside.

Mehdi Taremi was another prolific goalscorer in the Portuguese top division, but he, like Nunez, has also struggled for form since leaving the country, finding the back of the net just once for Inter Milan last season after notching 64 goals in 122 games for Porto. Jackson Martinez, Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, Islam Slimani and Bas Dost all suffered a similar fate outside Portugal.

Of course, Gyokeres doesn’t need to score 54 goals in one season to be a success at Arsenal. He could score half that number and still be the player to get the Gunners over the line first in the title race. Take away the number of penalties Gyokeres scored last season (19), though, and that number is whittled down.

There’s also the inconvenient truth that Gyokeres only scored once against the top five teams in Portugal last season. The majority of his goals came against sides in the bottom half of the table. Arsenal will need Gyokeres to make the step up against the strongest opponents in the most consequential of matches.

Arsenal will have done their homework on Gyokeres. They have wanted a new centre forward for long enough to have scoped out other options (like Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike) and decided the Swede is the best fit. Gyokeres might be the striker Arsenal need. He could also be an expensive error that only compounds the Gunners’ attacking issues.

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