If some saw Benjamin Sesko as the prototype for a striker Mikel Arteta liked at Arsenal, Viktor Gyökeres was the feasible ‘win now’ option to force him out of his comfort zone.

Whatever the truth may be, club and player need to try to support each other, and the Swede has seen how it makes a difference to be somewhere he knows that “I am going to show what I can do on the pitch.”

‘Most of all I want to score goals’
The right environment helps a player greatly. The 27-year-old moved to Brighton in 2018, but the transfer never gave him playing time to work with. Loans to second tier German side St. Pauli and Coventry were underwhelming. But a permanent move to the Midlands started something special.

“Maybe didn’t change so much when I was on loan there, but when I signed permanently in in the summer, that’s where it really changed because I think when I came there when I signed there, I think it felt just different from the start. I felt that I was going to show what I can do on the pitch because I really didn’t do that when I was on loan and then from that day I showed that in the two seasons.”

Gyökeres grabbed 17 and then 21 strikes in the Championship for Coventry before blowing up the record book at Sporting. His eye-catching celebration captures a message in more ways than one.

“It makes sense with how things turn out. After I started, I score more goals and do the mask more.”

Once quizzed about whether people knew of his feats at Sporting across the continent, Gyökeres responded with surprise. He does not court the limelight, but he has a high belief in what he can do on the pitch. If he can turn heads around, he will also help his teammates to close in on their targets.

“I felt nobody knew who I was. Sometimes when feeling like that, obviously you just have to perform when you play and everything else will come and that’s not what I chase really that everyone should know who I am. I just want to be on the pitch, perform well and, most of all I want to score goals.”

The striker has scored against Nottingham Forest (once) and Leeds United (twice) for the Gunners. However, he fired blanks against Man United, Liverpool, and Man City: all ‘Big Six’ opponents. For him and the rest of the team, the target is to mesh together to produce a perfect ending come May.

“Some games have been tougher where I haven’t performed how I wanted. This might depend on how the game looked but I had games where I felt very good so it’s been up and down but I’ve managed to score goals and we won most of the games. It’s been quite a good start but it can always be better..”