When Viktor Gyökeres fixes you with those piercing blue eyes and that inscrutable look, it is possible to get the wrong impression. “He wants to kill you,” Mikel Arteta said with a smile. “He’s got that eye. When he looks at you, he can look a bit intimidating.”
The Arsenal manager was in relaxed mood as he looked forward to Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Chelsea at the Emirates and not because he almost always seems to get the better of them. At one point, Arteta threw a bottle of water at a journalist who had a frog in his throat as he asked his question; disappointingly, the cap was on. At another, he joked about his press officer’s sprawling mansion in Kent and how jealous he was of him. The pressure of the title race is supposed to be consuming the ultra-intense Arteta. Not on this evidence.
Arteta wanted to be clear that Gyökeres is a lovely guy; open and cool. The centre-forward is an assassin only when he steps on to the pitch. And the theme, really, with the Swede, who signed last summer from Sporting for £55m plus £9m in add-ons, was love. How he has won the affection of his teammates. How the Arsenal No 14 shirt – once the property of Thierry Henry – has come to sit more easily and attractively on his shoulders.
“Confidence is the fundamental pillar for any person, whatever you do in life,” Arteta said. “And when you feel like you belong somewhere and you are liked, even better, if you are loved … If you feel the trust of the people around you, I think then you can really hit the levels that everybody expects from you. Viktor now is in a moment where he starts to get those feelings and that is a really positive thing for performances.”
Gyökeres is on the crest of a wave after his two-goal display in last Sunday’s 4-1 derby win at Tottenham, which most onlookers felt was his best in Arsenal colours. He has eight goals in 12 appearances, the first of the sequence coming against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Stamford Bridge on 14 January. Before that, he had seven goals in 24 Arsenal games. The question is whether he can deliver in another crunch London derby. It can be considered with a good deal less trepidation.
“We didn’t underestimate the step from Sporting to Arsenal,” Arteta said. “We tried to explain all the new circumstances and contexts that Viktor’s going to have to adapt to. The big one was a different league, a different game model. Players that he never played with before. And on top of that, you come with expectations of being that No 9. That’s a big one.”
It has been an unusual week for Arsenal in that, for the first time in two months, they did not have a midweek game. Arteta said he would have loved to go away to Dubai with the squad – as Arsenal did last February. When that was deemed unfeasible, he gave the players a couple of days off to clear their heads and maybe enjoy a bit of space from each other.
“But then you get very surprised,” Arteta said. “And I find out that eight or 10 players were having dinner in somebody’s house or spent the whole afternoon together. That’s the beauty of it – the fact that they want to be together; they feel that being together is the best thing they can do.”
Arteta’s record against Chelsea is excellent – W10 D4 L2 in all competitions. There was the FA Cup final victory over them in August 2020 and the crucial league win at the Emirates on Boxing Day of that year, which some people thought kept Arteta in his job. He is unbeaten against Chelsea in 10 meetings.
If Gyökeres continues to fire, Arsenal’s hopes will soar – even if there could be a financial penalty. When he reaches 20 for combined goals and assists, he will trigger one of the add-on payments to Sporting, €500,000 (£440,000). He has two assists to go with his 15 goals. “I hope the owners and everyone at the club is really happy if that’s the case,” Arteta said of the eventuality of their having to pay it.
