Viktor Gyokeres: Can stuttering Arsenal striker save his season in Premier League showdown against Leeds United?

Should Viktor Gyokeres find himself on the Emirates Stadium pitch against Leeds United this weekend, the Swedish striker will be hoping to take inspiration from his Arsenal home debut a year ago as he looks to kickstart a less than stellar season so far in red and white.

Highlights: Arsenal stay perfect as Guimaraes comes back to haunt Sunderland

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The champions welcome Daniel Farke’s side live with TNT Sports on HBO Max as Premier League football makes a return following a lengthy international break.

After winning four games from four to start their title defence in style, the Gunners were rocked in their last outing, swept aside 3-0 by a rampant Brighton and Hove Albion at the AMEX Stadium.

With three weeks to lick their wounds, Mikel Arteta, fresh off a new contract, will be pushing his side to get back on track in their quest to defend their crown.

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However, they potentially go into the game against a high-flying and unbeaten Leeds without striker Kai Havertz, who is a doubt after picking up an injury playing for Germany.

Havertz's absence should mean that Gyokeres gets the nod to lead the line, despite very limited involvement so far this campaign.

Brought in with much fanfare in the summer of 2025 for around £55 million from Sporting CP, it was in just his second game – the corresponding Leeds fixture – where the 28-year-old announced himself with a brace.

The striker's first that day came courtesy of a direct solo run and finish, before adding a second via a late penalty.

Gyokeres with 'dead-eyed finish' from long-range to seal victory over Inter

Video credit: TNT Sports

At that stage, fans would have been forgiven for thinking they would be seeing a flood of goals from their new man, even if not quite the jaw-dropping 97 in 102 games he scored in Portugal over the previous two seasons.

This, unfortunately, hasn't proven to be the case.

To his credit, Gyokeres managed 21 goals in all competitions to finish as the club’s top scorer – 10 more than Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Matinelli on 11 – with his contributions helping Arsenal lift their first Premier League in 22 years and reach the UEFA Champions League final.

However, across the season, there were struggles for consistency, stretches without goals and being left out of the starting line-up in favour of Havertz when the German was fit - including that defeat in Budapest.

Gyokeres managed a goal every 166 minutes across 55 appearances, which was still marginally worse than the club's other nominal centre-forwards. Harvertz scored a goal every 152 minutes and the now departed Gabriel Jesus found the net every 165 minutes with both featuring far less, largely due to injury.

Arsenal strikers 2025/26 (all competitions)

	Viktor Gyokeres	Kai Havertz	Gabriel Jesus
Games (Minutes)	55 (3479)	24 (1066)	27 (988)
Goals (xG)	21 (20.2)	7 (6.8)	6 (6.7)
Goals per minute	165.7	152.3	164.7

According to Opta, of Gyokeres’ 14 league goals, only his penalty against Everton in December was solely responsible for points won (2), a stat matched by Havertz against Burnley in May and Jesus against Crystal Palace on the final day.

And while his goal return was certainly respectable, it didn't prevent a heavily-rumoured but ultimately failed attempt to sign Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid over the summer.

Gyokeres has yet to make any notable impact this term, starting just twice in games against Napoli and Ipswich in the Champions League and EFL Cup respectively.

His only league appearances have been as a late substitute against Chelsea and Brighton for a combined 29 minutes, in which he failed to muster a shot on goal, nor even a touch in the opposition penalty area.

Even in his two starts, Gyokeres managed just one shot at Portman Road and none in Naples – two games in which Arsenal were dominant with the ball and created several chances.

	Arsenal	Napoli
Possession %	57.7	42.4
Shots	26	5
Shots on Target	8	3
Expected Goals	4.05	0.22

	Arsenal	Ipswich Town
Possession %	59.0	41.0
Shots	12	8
Shots on Target	6	3
Expected Goals	1.00	0.83

Viktor Gyokeres touches 2026/27

Image credit: Opta

For context, even Noni Madueke (6) and Max Dowman (3) have taken more shots despite fewer minutes on the pitch.

His cause is not helped by Havertz’s early season form. Including the Community Shield win over Manchester City, the German has scored three times, having managed 11 shots across 530 minutes.

Arsenal forwards - All competitions 2026/27

Player	Games (starts/mins)	Goals ( total xG)	Shots (on target)	Mins/goal
Christos Tzolis	8 (6/493)	0 (1.1)	9 (5)	0
Bukayo Saka	7 (6/521)	3 (4.7)	23 (10)	174
Kai Havertz	7 (6/530)	3 (2.1)	11 (7)	177
Noni Madueke	5 (2/176)	1 (0.7)	6 (3)	176
Viktor Gyokeres	5 (2/207)	0 (0.1)	1 (1)	0
Max Dowman	2 (1/99)	2 (0.4)	3 (2)	50

But it is far from doom and gloom for the hitman, especially in this early stage of the campaign.

As stated, it was a home game against Leeds last year where he demonstrated what he is capable of, and everyone at the club will be hoping history will repeat itself.

A note of positivity and encouragement comes from Gyokeres’ recent form for his country.

The Nations League provided the player with an opportunity to find his goalscoring form on the international stage, and he grabbed it with both hands, scoring four goals in four games for Graham Potter's Sweden in two wins over Romania, victory over Poland and a draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With his strike against the latter, he became the first player in Nations League history to score in six straight games, extending that to seven in the second match against Romania.

Across a total of 345 minutes, Gyokeres managed 11 shots, 22 touches in the opposition box and an xG of 2.6, so the question becomes less about his capabilities but whether he can translate that to his Arsenal displays going forwards.

Viktor Gyokeres performs his trademark celebration after scoring for Sweden against Romania.

Image credit: Getty Images

Over the break, Gyokeres himself acknowledged he needs to improve and will set about doing so when given the opportunity.

"I obviously need to do better and I’m willing to do it, so it’s no problem," he was quoted in Swedish media.

"It’s clear that I want to play football as much as possible. Hopefully that will come, too, you always want to be on the field as a football player.

"Of course, you expect more playing time, but we have an extremely good squad with a lot of good players and have been doing well here at the start."

All stats courtesy of Opta

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