Gyokeres battles Simeone ‘dark arts’ to enjoy sliding doors moment in £130m Arsenal boost
Viktor Gyokeres scored his 19th goal of a debut Arsenal season which has seen him roundly criticised for failing to replicate the Sporting form which encouraged Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta to part with £55m to sign him last summer.
Him winning the penalty, what led to him winning it and the bottle he showed to despatch it under pressure combined in a the sliding doors moment to confirm he’s worth persisting with amid doubts over his future and save Arsenal a cool £130m this summer.
“It’s the best 45 minutes we’ve seen from Gyokeres in an Arsenal shirt,” said Gunners mouthpiece Martin Keown at half-time after a line-leading display typical of his Sporting days that the big Swede has failed to produce ad nauseam this season.
Strength that looks to have been sapped from his legs in the Premier League returned as he held the ball up and won aerial battles. His first touch was far more assured than we’ve become painfully accustomed to. We were even treated to one of his barrelling runs from deep as he tore through the Atletico Madrid midfield and past the defence before setting Martin Odegaard up with a brilliant pull back into the box.
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Marcus Llorente outmuscled him to win the ball back after a similar run shortly before the penalty, which he won in a way yer da might describe as a dive but anyone accepting of the modern ways – including Steven Gerrard after the game – would insist is “clever” from Gyokeres and daft in the extreme from Dávid Hancko, who gave the Arsenal striker an opportunity to go down that he was absolutely right not to pass up.
There was some lovely interplay between Martin Zubimendi and Martin Odegaard in the build-up and a really, really poor header from Julian Alvarez made particularly striking amid reports of interest from Arsenal in his services as a possible replacement for Gyokeres. That interest was bizarrely confirmed by Diego Simeone ahead of the game.
“I just suppose it is normal,” Simeone said. “He is an extraordinary player. There is interest from Arsenal, Paris St Germain, Barcelona and other teams. But it is nothing we are concerned about.”
Do the Simeone ‘dark arts’ extend to him seeding doubts in the minds of the strikers left in the Champions League through raising the possibility of them being replaced by his own star striker? Maybe not. Naming them along with a La Liga rival did feel strangely pointed though.
Alvarez was very good too, whipping a free-kick into the side netting that 90 per cent of the baying crowd were convinced had nestled into the top corner, before converting a penalty given thanks to that most irritating of disparities between Premier League and European football handball law interpretations with aplomb.
Operating as the furthest forward Atletico player here, he’s just as frequently used as a second striker playing behind Alexander Sorloth. He’s more technically gifted than Gyokeres, has more to his game, can do things the Arsenal striker can’t do and few would argue over who is the better or even more useful player.
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A straight swap is one Arsenal could only dream of, exemplified by the £130m price tag Atletico have slapped on their star man and suggestions the Gunners would struggle to break even should they decide to send Gyokeres packing this summer.
Kai Havertz could instead be sacrificed to bring Alvarez to the Emirates in the summer; they’re certainly more comparable players.
But whether the Kroenkes manage to find the nine-figure sum down the back of the sofa or not, this was a big game to show that that money need not be spent on replacing Gyokeres, assuming he can replicate a performance befitting the striker they signed him to be last summer.
