Viktor Gy\u00f6keres began his first season at Arsenal under intense scrutiny and that spotlight intensified when Mikel Arteta left him on the bench for the trip to Manchester United. The transfer outlay that accompanied his arrival left expectations that he would immediately become Arteta\u2019s No. 1 striker and lead the club\u2019s push for a first Premier League title in 22 years.<\/p>\n
Arsenal sit four points clear of Manchester City in second ahead of the clash with old rivals United, yet Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s direct influence has been modest. In 20 Premier League games he has scored five goals. Three of those arrived in the first four weeks of the season and came against Leeds United and Nottingham Forest. His other league strikes came against Burnley and Everton. Burnley sit 19th and Everton 11th in the table. Two of his five Premier League goals have been penalties.<\/p>\n
Gy\u00f6keres has often occupied himself wrestling opposition centre backs or running into the channels to get involved. Arsenal\u2019s build-up play has historically come through central midfield or out wide, with Kai Havertz operating as a deep-lying centre forward in 2024\u201325. The team have not yet adjusted fully to Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s strengths and he is not taking enough shots at goal to force his way into an indisputable starting role.<\/p>\n
Another factor behind Arteta\u2019s selection was Gabriel Jesus\u2019s return from an 11-month injury absence and his public desire to remain at the Emirates. Two goals against Inter in a 3\u20131 Champions League win midweek gave Jesus the nod here. Gy\u00f6keres did net as well for his ninth goal across all competitions, but Arteta favoured the more experienced option for this occasion.<\/p>\n
The consequence is that Gy\u00f6keres \u201cdoesn\u2019t yet have the trust of his manager and he\u2019s not yet viewed as a player who\u2019s a \u201cmust start.\u201d There is no suggestion his immediate future is in doubt. Arteta has said all the right things when it comes to giving him time to settle and fully integrate, so it seems unlikely he will be cast aside.<\/p>\n
Starting XI: David Raya, Jurri\u00ebn Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel, Piero Hincapi\u00e9, Martin \u00d8degaard, Mart\u00edn Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard.<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Kepa Arrizabalaga (GK), Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Viktor Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gy\u00f6keres was benched vs Man Utd; his modest goal return and Jesus’s comeback shaped Arteta’s choice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,969],"tags":[1081,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-6239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6239","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=6239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}