Viktor Gyokeres is running out of time! Arsenal's star striker needs a statement performance against Liverpool with Gabriel Jesus & Kai Havertz ready to snatch his No.9 spot

Gyokeres' return of 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting meant that Arsenal probably would have felt that, at worse, he would have had no trouble finding the net this season. He also boasted previous experience in England with Coventry City, ripping up the Championship and coming within a penalty shootout of promotion in his final year with the Sky Blues. There was probably some theory that as long as he was standing in the right places, the Gunners' creative and other attacking outlets would find him.

This has not been the case. Gyokeres has blanked in 18 of his 23 Arsenal appearances to date. Two of his seven goals have been penalties. Remarkably, he still is the team's joint-leading scorer both in the Premier League and in all competitions, though this is more down to the their strength in depth and proficiency from set-pieces, spreading the love right through a deep squad - 15 different players have scored, while Arsenal have benefitted from four own goals too.

Given the expectations set for Gyokeres, he ranked sixth on GOAL's list of the 11 most disappointing Premier League signings so far this season. We're not writing him off, but he hasn't given us a reason to be too impressed just yet.

Gary Lineker, one of the finest strikers England has ever produced, believes Gyokeres needs to be doing more off the ball in order to improve both his goal tally and importance to the team, telling the Swede to take a leaf out of the in-form Dominic Calvert-Lewin's book.

"I've watched him quite closely the last few weeks and I think he's like most strikers, is one that waits to see where it's going, the ball, waits until it's crossed and then attacks the space," Lineker said of Gyokeres on The Rest Is Football podcast. "That's what defenders do, as a striker you got to gamble on where you think the ball might go and you go just as they're about to cross it. You steal a march on the defender that way and lots of the time the ball won't go there, but I don't see him doing that very often.

"Dominic Calvert-Lewin did a perfect example of how to do that for the Leeds goal at Sunderland, perfect. He didn't wait and to see where it was going to go. He went, 'Right, I pulled away and then he sprinted at the near post and hoped that the ball would be delivered there and it was'. I don't see that too often from Gyokeres at present, the players that score big numbers will do that. You know, [Erling] Haaland, [Harry] Kane, [Robert] Lewandowski, they know how to make those kind of moves into those spaces. Is it something you can learn? I've always thought yes, but because it's actually common sense because it's law of probability when you think about it."

Beyond the numbers, Gyokeres doesn't look like a typical Arsenal player. You could excuse his brutish style and brooding, henchman-like demeanour if he was scoring goals by the bucket load. Instead, he just appears to be a bit out of his depth.

Arguably, Arsenal's best stretch of the season came when Gyokeres was injured and only just returning to full fitness, with the Gunners notably thrashing rivals Tottenham and then picking apart fellow Champions League hopefuls Bayern Munich in November. Granted, this is a small sample size, so it's impossible to say whether or not Gyokeres' absence was key to this run, but the optics of any supposed correlation aren't great for his case.

Gyokeres is incredibly strong, and the various pictures of him across the internet without a shirt on prove he's ripped. Yet this doesn't translate particularly well to the pitch, with former Arsenal star and fellow Swede Stefan Schwarz suggesting the striker may need to lose some weight if he's going to find his best form again.

"Sometimes the dog who barks loudest is not always the strongest. I think it's just the players in the Premier League. They are more powerful players, faster players. The strikers will always be counted on for the goals that they are scoring. Hopefully, he'll start to create and score goals, have a good run, get that real boost, and get a bit lighter because he's a heavy player. I think that would help," Schwarz said to Hajper in November.

"He didn't have a proper pre-season, and you need to play the games. You have those six weeks to interact with your colleagues, to understand the movement. When the midfielder makes the pass, you just have to look in their eyes, you know where they'll pass it. That's a relationship that takes a bit of time, and football is about fine margins. Look at Dennis Bergkamp, he was the best at that. He will learn and score a lot of goals, and that will benefit Arsenal."

For most of 2025-26, Gyokeres' position as Arsenal's No.9 has been relatively unchallenged. Mikel Merino has again come in handy as an option up front, though largely as a last-resort measure.

But now there is genuine competition for that spot. Gabriel Jesus is back in the picture following an ACL tear and has looked as sharp as he has in years. His superb strike in their recent 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa opened the door to the Brazilian becoming a starter once again at the expense of Gyokeres.

After that goal, Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports: "The one negative out of tonight for Arsenal is that Gyokeres should not be starting, when they have players like this. In a couple of games time, when Jesus is a bit more up to speed, he should be starting. He's a better player than Gyokeres - that's a fact.

"There's been questions in the past asking if [Jesus] is good enough for Arsenal to go and win the league. But right now, he's better than the guy they brought in who they thought was going to win them the league. [Kai] Havertz or him as the central striker is a better player than Gyokeres. He lacks finesse and quality when you think of what they've got on the bench. I think Arsenal need to improve on Gyokeres and they've got players that can in Jesus."

As alluded to by Carragher, Kai Havertz is another player looking to take minutes away from Gyokeres. Usually an ironman figure who's always fit and available, the German has been plagued by injuries over the last 12 months, but is closing in on a return to action.

Havertz was signed from Chelsea in 2023 to play in central midfield, but after half a season of failed experimentation, Arteta decided to move him into the No.9 role. Through Arsenal's final 14 games of 2023-24, Havertz registered nine goals and seven assists having been bumped up the pitch. He was also the team's leading scorer for 2024-25 despite missing the last third of the campaign.

Whenever Arteta is afforded a chance to talk about Havertz, he seems enamoured by the forward. "He's a player that we miss a lot, a player that brings the team into a different dimension, so I'm really happy to have him back very soon," Arteta said of him in December.

At the back-end of last season, the manager said Havertz had used his time out injured to make drastic changes to his physique: "There's been a transformation in his body. The last three years in his career have been so condensed that he hasn't had time to do that and this has been a window and he really wanted to use it.

"To be fair, the staff and how they have explained the opportunity that is within with his physique to go to a different level and the things that he can improve and it can even help him mentally as well as being more effective as a player. He got on board with that, he worked hard, got on board with that, you can see his presence and I think he destroyed all the metrics that we had in the gym for the last 10 years. Power, acceleration, muscle mass, the way that he has increased certain capacities in his body, his agility, he's been incredible."

If Havertz can finally come back, stay fit and live up to the hype that Arteta has created, then that's a massive problem for Gyokeres.

Gyokeres hasn't been prolific in an Arsenal shirt, but there's an argument he is still helping by occupying defenders with his considerable presence. It's a part of his game which has been highlighted by Declan Rice, who scored twice in Saturday's 3-2 win at Bournemouth thanks to his striker keeping the opponents busy.

"It's tough for him, because he's got two defenders on him all game, all over him," Rice said of Gyokeres. "So he has to use his strength, he has to do all he can to help the team and with my first goal, without him making that run from Gabriel Martinelli's flick and holding it, setting it off to Martin [Odegaard], that goal wouldn't happen. That was a pivotal moment in the game for us to turn the game on its head.

"I see how hard he hits a ball, and when that space arrives for him and the ball's arriving at his feet to score goals, he will 100 percent score. But at the minute, defenders in the Premier League want to be able to stop Viktor Gyokeres, because he's one of the best strikers in the world. Trust me, he's doing unbelievably for us, and we wouldn't be where we are without him."

Though never one to throw his own players under the bus, Arteta too has publicly supported Gyokeres, insisting there are extenuating circumstances behind his slow start.

"I think the level of attention on him hasn't changed since he signed to today," he said prior to the Swede's winner away at Everton last month. "That's normal. Everybody was so excited to bring a No.9 into the club. We did it, we played, we brought a player with an incredible scoring record that had to adapt to the league. He had no pre-season. The first few weeks were difficult because physically, he wasn't in his best state and he's a player that needs that, like any other player in this league, almost to perform at that level. Then he kicked on.

"I think he had a really good period and he got injured, and now he's back. But I saw a lot of positive things in the last two games that he's done. We need to continue to tweak and understand him a little bit better in certain situations and he needs to do the same. But that's about time and we have full support for him."

Gyokeres drew a blank and was condemned for a subpar performance when Arsenal were beaten 1-0 at Liverpool at the end of August. At the time, it seemed to be a showdown which confirmed the reigning Premier League champions' place atop the food chain, but the complexion is very different today.

Arsenal are now the team to beat across all of Europe, and they head into Thursday's fixture 14 points ahead of the Reds in the standings. The only consolation at Anfield is at least one of their two huge striker signings has been a hit.

Hugo Ekitike's record of 10 goals in 25 matches so far for Liverpool has seen him become a fan favourite on Merseyside, leading the line with grace - in a 'good feet for a big man' sort of way - and ruthlessness. Arriving from Eintracht Frankfurt aged 23, Ekitike is someone they can build their attack around in the future, and it's hard to believe that Sesko was the Bundesliga attacker Arsenal were so enamoured with instead.

Meanwhile, Alexander Isak was long tipped as a transfer target for the Gunners, drawing comparisons to the great Thierry Henry. His start at Liverpool has been even more hellish than countryman Gyokeres' at Arsenal, though, scoring only three times in 16 games before fracturing his leg while netting the most recent of those goals away at Tottenham. Regardless, Isak is two years younger than Gyokeres and infinitely more successful at the top level. Even with his struggles this season, there must be people within the Emirates Stadium walls who regret not pushing the boat out to try and acquire Isak knowing he could have been available to them.

With Isak still on the treatment table and Ekitike a doubt to play on Thursday, Gyokeres should have the chance to show his mettle as an elite striker in this famous fixture without reply. Liverpool are in free-fall and, much like when Villa arrived in north London a fortnight ago, they are overdo a hammering having ridden their luck through the winter. Arne Slot's men are vulnerable, particularly in defence. If a £55m striker can't feast on that, then when exactly will he?