{"id":113201,"date":"2025-08-02T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/113201\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:37:10","slug":"mikel-arteta-now-wants-to-completely-change-arsenals-style-of-play-because-of-viktor-gyokeres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/113201\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta now wants to completely change Arsenal’s style of play because of Viktor Gyokeres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal made their marquee summer signing official last week, announcing the addition of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP for \u00a363 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gunners had been in the market for a striker for over a year, pursuing the likes of Benjamin Sesko<\/a> and Ollie Watkins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With both of these targets proving to be too expensive, Andrea Berta made a move for Gyokeres<\/a> and secured the Swedish number nine after strenuous negotiations with Sporting.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres made his Arsenal debut against Tottenham<\/a> on Thursday in Hong Kong, commencing his career in a red and white shirt. <\/p>\n

\"ArsenalPhoto by Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty ImagesMikel Arteta wants to change Arsenal\u2019s style of play after signing Viktor Gyokeres<\/p>\n

Gyokeres<\/a> excels at making runs in behind and stretching the last line of the opposition defence.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Kai Havertz<\/a> likes to drop deep and get on the ball, combining with midfielders and wide players before making his way into the box.<\/p>\n

These stylistic differences mean Arsenal<\/a> will have to shift how they play to accommodate Gyokeres and maximise his strengths.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta<\/a> recognises this, with the Athletic<\/a> reporting that the Spaniard has already begun implementing changes to his system in pre-season.<\/p>\n

The report indicates that the tactician has started working on his team\u2019s ability to be more direct and play more vertical passes.<\/p>\n

Arsenal lost 1-0 to Tottenham<\/a> on Thursday, in a match which saw the Gunners clearly attempt to play in this style.<\/p>\n

They went long frequently, relentlessly trying to find the forward players as quickly and directly as possible.<\/p>\n

The outcome was a team that looked somewhat dysfunctional, not yet used to playing in this manner, while the figurehead of the side was still Havertz.<\/p>\n

This new style of play may need some work, but it has the potential to unlock one of the most potent forwards in Europe, and thus, Arsenal fans should be excited.<\/p>\n

\"ArsenalPhoto by Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty ImagesViktor Gyokeres statistics vs Kai Havertz\u2019s statistics<\/p>\n

Havertz acts as much more of a focal point than Gyokeres, pinning defenders with his physicality, while supplying David Raya<\/a> with a target for his long passes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gyokeres will be a lot more flexible, favouring running into channels and peeling out wide, rather than staying central and acting as a bouncing board.<\/p>\n

This gives Arsenal two distinct ways of playing, depending on who is deployed up front, which should make them more unpredictable moving forward.<\/p>\n\nStatistical Comparison 2024\/25 (League Only)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStat<\/td>\nGyokeres<\/td>\nHavertz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAppearances<\/td>\n33<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoals<\/td>\n39<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAssists<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nShots per 90<\/td>\n4.08<\/td>\n2.54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nExpected Goals per 90<\/td>\n0.99<\/td>\n0.46<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nKey Passes per 90<\/td>\n1.96<\/td>\n0.82<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nExpected Assists per 90<\/td>\n0.22<\/td>\n0.12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Viktor Gyokeres vs Kai Havertz Statistical Comparison 2024\/25 (League Only)<\/p>\n

As shown by the data above, Gyokeres is more astute at getting shots off and finding himself in dangerous positions inside the box than his German counterpart.<\/p>\n

The Swede also boasts more impressive creative numbers, finding himself in positions to cut the ball back to teammates more frequently than Havertz.<\/p>\n

That said, it remains to be seen how Gyokeres\u2019 numbers translate to the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal made their marquee summer signing official last week, announcing the addition of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[13721,221,62,67,132,68,13723],"class_list":{"0":"post-113201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-mikel-arteta","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-viktor-gyokeres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114959682675706308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}