Mikel Arteta has welcomed Wayne Rooney\u2019s recent praise of Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, emphasising that the striker\u2019s value goes beyond goals. Arteta highlighted the new signing\u2019s link-up play, his willingness to stretch the game and run the channels, and the physical presence that has unsettled central defenders.<\/p>\n
Gy\u00f6keres returned to scoring form with a quick-fire double against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, but Arteta says the broader influence on Arsenal\u2019s midfield and forward line is what matters. He contrasted Gy\u00f6keres\u2019 different dynamic with the club\u2019s previous option in 2024\u201325, describing how the striker\u2019s hold-up play and movement open space and timing for team-mates.<\/p>\n
Rooney said \u201cArsenal have been crying out for a number nine for a few years now and he\u2019s come in and his work rate, his determination, his hold-up play and obviously scoring a few goals as well,\u201d when describing why he\u2019d put Gy\u00f6keres in his top three players of the season so far, and Arteta told reporters on Friday that he was pleased with that assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m really glad that this is coming from someone like Wayne, his experience and the kind of player that he was.,\u201d the Spaniard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually then it’s not just related to the goals that he has scored but the contribution to the team and the impact that Viktor has in our team, his work rate, the way he opens the spaces for other people, the timing that he generates for us and then as well the level of threat that he has brought to the team, which is magnificent. So I’m really happy to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney had placed Gy\u00f6keres alongside Bournemouth\u2019s Antoine Semenyo, whose form has generated transfer speculation because of a \u00a365 million release clause valid for January, and Manchester United\u2019s Bryan Mbeumo, who has enjoyed a strong start at Old Trafford after his move from Brentford.<\/p>\n
Arteta was also asked about contract discussions with Bukayo Saka. He indicated there is mutual commitment and described the situation as confidence rather than concern: \u201cI prefer that word, I think it is confidence,\u201d Arteta said. He added: \u201cWhat I’m very aware of is that he wants to continue with us, that he’s very happy and that he’s in the place that he wants to continue to be and achieve everything that we want to achieve together. And then when that happens and how it happens, I leave that to Andrea [Berta] and the club to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta backs Rooney’s view that Gy\u00f6keres brings more than goals to Arsenal; Saka’s talks continue as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172,1125],"tags":[983,826,1077],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","category-strikers","tag-agents","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-contract-renewal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}