Mikel Arteta has defended Viktor Gy\u00f6keres after a slow start at Arsenal and predicted the striker will improve in the second half of the season. Gy\u00f6keres has six goals from 19 appearances at the Emirates Stadium, scoring in just four matches and registering his Premier League goals against sides currently in the bottom five.<\/p>\n
Arteta pointed to fitness issues and the weight of expectation surrounding the summer transfer as explanations for the modest return so far. The manager also referenced a self-enforced training strike that delayed Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s preparation for the campaign and left him without a proper pre-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I think the level of attention on him hasn\u2019t changed since he signed to today,\u201d Arteta said to reporters on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s normal. You know, everybody was so excited to bring him into the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did it. We brought a player with an incredible scoring record who had to adapt to the league. He had no pre-season. The first few weeks were difficult because physically he wasn\u2019t in his best state and he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now he\u2019s back. I saw a lot of positive things in the last two games that he\u2019s done. I know 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\u2019s about time. We have full support for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta also noted the adjustment to life at a big club and the global attention Gy\u00f6keres must manage after his move from Sporting. \u201cYou have to experience it,\u201d Arteta warned. \u201cYou can imagine the global impact that you\u2019re going to have to deal with when you come to a big club, and the expectations are as such.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut after you have to live it. And living it is always slightly different to your imagination. But he\u2019s doing it with a lot of desire. I think his energy level, his commitment, it\u2019s absolutely top. And we are here to help him because we\u2019ve all been here. We all need time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always moments and the strikers have moments. They score more goals, less goals. And we need to be there for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta finished optimistic about Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s trajectory. \u201cI think so, yes.\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta expects Gy\u00f6keres to reach a higher level in the second half, citing fitness and pressure too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,969],"tags":[1081,1047],"class_list":["post-5217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5217","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=5217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}