“Arteta sold him for free and he’s now the best player in Europe, they’re regretting now…Arteta still has alot to learn”: Pep Guardiola trolls Arsenal for selling a player who’s now the best player in Europe

Arsenal have gone from strength to strength under Mikel Arteta’s management, and there’s a sense that this year is as good as any as they look to win their first top-flight title in two decades.

New technical director Andrea Berta has succeeded in bringing over some exciting summer signings, and in particular, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze have caught the eye.

But the £60m striker, Viktor Gyokeres, leaves something to be desired, having arrived to much fanfare after hitting incredible prolific heights in Portugal with two-in-a-row league champions Sporting Lisbon.

Viktor Gyokeres’ Arsenal career so far
Gyokeres, at the very least, knows where the back of the net is. However, his performances across the opening weeks of the campaign haven’t been all that serviceable,

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has described him as a “battering ram” who could “beat up smaller teams”, but there’s a sense he might have work to do when pitted against those of an ostensibly higher technical level.

The 27-year-old’s frustrations aren’t limited to the domestic front, though, having blanked across his first two forays into the Champions League as an Arsenal player. During these fixtures against Athletic Bilbao and Olympiakos, he has missed three big chances (data courtesy of Sofascore).

It is also surely worth stressing that we are only two months into the campaign. There is plenty of time for this powerful goalscorer to continue to adapt to life as a high-profile Premier League marksman.

As Neville has alluded to, the contrast between “misfit” Gyokeres and the more technically smooth attacking teammates around him is not necessarily a bad thing, but he will need to sharpen his overall link-up play.

Gyokeres, after all, has the talent to become the Gunners’ finest centre-forward in many years, though whether he would take the cake when peering back at positional rivals over the past ten years or so is questionable.

Indeed, there’s a veteran striker who, having once led the line at the Emirates, has started the season even stronger than Arteta’s new focal frontman.

The former Arsenal ST outperforming Gyokeres

Gyokeres isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but then Arsenal have signed strikers of a more mature status in the past – and to an emphatic effect at that.

Just take a look at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who arrived from Borussia Dortmund for £56m in January 2018 and scored 92 goals across just 163 matches for the Gunners, assisting 21 strikes too.

The Gabonese goalscorer might have left the club somewhat unceremoniously, but he left his mark on Arteta’s reign, having manufactured the Spaniard’s sole slice of silverware, notching four goals in the late stages of the 2019/20 FA Cup.

Indeed, with Arteta only months into his tenure at the Emirates helm, Aubameyang rose to the occasion in the semi-final at Wembley and scored a brace to down Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

Despite arriving at the season’s midpoint in 2019/20, Aubameyang hit the ground running in the Premier League, lashing home ten goals from 13 matches before hitting consecutive 22-goal campaigns in the English top flight.

He was 28 when he first arrived at the north London outfit, and has led a storied career in the years since leaving. In fact, plying his trade for Marseille this term, the now 36-year-old Aubameyang has posted four goals and three assists from seven games in all competitions this year.

Quite remarkably, he’s outperforming a positional rival in Gyokeres, who is nearly nine years his junior and plundered 97 goals across two campaigns in Portugal, including a hat-trick over Man City in the Champions League last year.

When looking at Arsenal’s top goalscorers in the Premier League, year by year, since Aubameyang last played a successful season at the club, it’s clear to see that supporters and critics have been on the money when noting a lack of quality in the final third has been hamstringing an otherwise top-level attacking team.

With three goals from his first seven Premier League appearances, it hasn’t been an abject start by any stretch. But Gyokeres has left something to be desired with his performances, for sure, having missed four big chances and averaged under six passes per game at a completion rate of 56%.

Three goals may be under the belt in the English top flight, but Gyokeres still needs to find another gear if he is to rival and surpass Aubameyang as the club’s finest centre-forward in so many years.

Whether he crosses that 22-goal threshold this term is open to question, but Arteta will no doubt expect more from his expensive summer signing, especially when looking at Aubameyang, and how he is still utilising his movement and positioning to score goals with a consistency and ferocity that belies his age.

Sky Sports journalist Dougie Critchley has marvelled at how “one the best finishers of the last 15 years” is still striking true on the big stage.

And given that Aubameyang is still outperforming the Swede for Marseille this season, the argument lingers concerning Gyokeres’ suitability for a side looking every bit the title-challenging force that they have been expected to perform as over the past few years.