It’s not been an easy debut season at Arsenal for Viktor Gyokeres, but he seems to be hitting form at the right moment.
The Gunners’ title charge continues to go to plan as they moved an ominous nine points clear of their rivals thanks to their 3-0 home win over Sunderland, as Aston Villa lost more ground with a 1-1 draw at AFC Bournemouth.
For Gyokeres, it was one of his best days yet in an Arsenal shirt.
In just 30 minutes on the pitch as a second-half substitute for Gabriel Jesus, he bagged his second Premier League brace – and his first league goals at Emirates Stadium since his home debut in August’s 5-0 thrashing of Leeds United.
The Swede is hitting his stride at just the right time, and no Premier League player has managed more goals in all competitions this calendar year than his six.
“With Viktor, when you look at him, it’s very difficult to understand his emotions, because he looks straight at you and you don’t really know,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “But he doesn’t seem too affected by the real highs or the lows. And that’s what we need, is stability.
“He’s very demanding of himself. He’s constantly trying to improve and that’s really, really good.
“Confidence is the magic word. When you feel confident, when you feel important, when you feel at your best, that’s when you can really take your game to the highest level.
“We are really behind him in every moment to try to help him, to try to support him. And he is delivering, and he’s in a really good moment now.”
Six of Gyokeres’s eight league goals have come against promoted teams. After scoring in back-to-back league games for the first time, he is now only two goals away from double figures in the Premier League, more than Havertz managed as leading scorer last season, with nine goals.
Viktor Gyokeres shot map graphic 2025-26
Perhaps it is the relentless schedule that is working to his advantage – the Gunners have already played 11 games in 2026. “It’s quite easy when you have a game every other day, it feels like,” he said. “You have a short amount of time to recover and prepare for the next one. It’s easy not to think about anything else.”
Worryingly for their rivals, the previous time Arsenal held a lead of nine points or more was 2003/04, when Arsene Wenger’s iconic “Invincibles” topped the table by nine, 10 and 11 points at various stages of the campaign en route to becoming unbeatable champions.
