After main Arsenal to 3 consecutive second place finishes within the premier league, Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta has refreshed his technique within the switch market as appears to be like to win the league.
In x-raying the Gunners failure to win the premier league since 2004 or the UEFA Chamions League of their historical past, Softfootball examines small margins that might have turned Arsenal into winners.
Arsenal are on the verge of signing Sporting striker Viktor Gyokeres after negotiations over the finer particulars of the switch took longer than anticipated. pic.twitter.com/n5SUx0RdyP
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 22, 2025
After the primary leg of the semi-finals of the Champions League in opposition to PSG, some Arsenal followers believed the Gunners would have received the match if Mikel Merino had featured as a striker in that sport as an alternative of Leandro Trossard, who was swallowed by the French facet’s defence.
This viewpoint was anomalous as a result of Merino is a central midfielder; nevertheless, he had been compelled to play as a striker in any case Arsenals’ centre ahead choices had been compelled to take an prolonged vacation on the physician’s workplace.
Nonetheless, as unusual because the Merino scenario may sound, Arsenal haven’t had a conventional striker of rebute for the reason that departure of Aubameyang, they signed Gabriel Jesus however he isn’t an out and out striker, Kai Harvertz had deputised within the position to a big diploma of success however he was delivered to membership to exchange Granit Xhaka in midfield.
Even with this, Arsenal have had a scary assault within the seasons earlier than the final one, and it’s typically believed that with out the interruption by accidents, the Emirates Stadium outfit would more than likely mount a more difficult push for the EPL title final season.
The Gunners didn’t have a single participant in double figures of objectives final season; they misplaced 21 factors from successful positions, and if it wasn’t for his or her stable defence, their incapability to kill off video games would have been severely punished much more.
That’s the reason the decision for a striker to reach on the Emirates is way louder this summer time than it has even been throughout the reign of Mikel Arteta. Nonetheless, signing a striker isn’t just placing the lacking piece in place for Arteta’s crew; it’s going to mark a tactical shift from the norm.
Tactically, the Arsenal supervisor likes to dominate and prefers his forwards to be versatile; he isn’t given to the old-fashioned centre ahead kind that was why Eddie Nketiah didn’t discover a lot success on the Emirates.
When he determined to signal a striker earlier, he settled for Jesus, a ahead who may assist with build-up play and seamlessly dovetail to different positions on the pitch at a second’s discover, which provides Arsenal tactical flexibility in video games.
The draw back to this method, nevertheless, is that they undergo from an absence of presence within the field; they lack the participant who may occupy defenders and run the channels.
When accidents took Jesus out of the equation, Arteta discovered success by taking part in Havertz because the crew’s goal man. He provides all the things Jesus provided with the added benefit of being 6’4. This helped to occupy defenders within the field and create chaos.
Nonetheless, Havertz’s intuition is to assist with the build-up and never play on the shoulder of the defender; he’s fairly good at operating the channels, too, however he doesn’t do it constantly like a conventional striker would.
Now, Viktor Gyokeres will quickly be among the many equation because the North Londoners are set to interrupt the financial institution for his companies after preliminary after add-ons delay as reported by BBC Sport. The Gunners endured Sporting Lisbon’s frustration to deliver the Swedish striker to the Emirates. In contrast to the forwards out there to Arteta, Gyokeres thrive on a extra direct system; the intricate passing and sluggish build-up that we affiliate with Arsenal might not go well with his model.
Nonetheless, Arsenal handlers are conscious of this example; Arteta’s technical crew wouldn’t signal a participant in the event that they didn’t have a plan and have an concept of how he matches into the system. We may very well be witnessing a transfer to a extra direct system from Arsenal.
Gyokeres’ signing may very well be much less of an evolution of Arteta’s model however extra of a reset from the norm altogether.
