Has Victor Gokeres lived up to pre-season expectations at Arsenal?
So far, the Sweden international striker has scored six goals for the Gunners, most notably scoring twice in the 4-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
However, as the saying goes, the heart grows nostalgic in its absence.
Gokeres limped off at half-time in the opener against Burnley at Turf Moor and missed the subsequent trips to Prague and Sunderland. His absence was felt during the 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. Perhaps his importance only became clear in his absence, as Mikel Arteta really lacked players who could run in at the back or reinforcements off the bench.
Before suffering this injury, Gokeres had started all 13 of Arsenal’s Premier League and Champions League games, playing 90 minutes in the absence of substitutes in nine innings, with Kai Havertz having not featured since injuring his knee in the opening game at Old Trafford.
Arteta wants his cavalry back ahead of the North London derby after the international break and with all six of Arsenal’s injured attackers close to returning, could ‘the club’s best finisher’ challenge Gokeres for the previously undisputed starting berth?
The importance of Kai Havertz for Arsenal
If Arsenal are to lift Manchester City to the Premier League title, they need key players to remain fit and available.
For Arteta, it’s William Saliba, Gabriel, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka. Some might argue that Julian Timber is also in this exclusive group, but Martin Odegaard was certainly there too before his injury problems this season and last season.
If you ask the manager, if not some onlookers, he will tell you that Kai Havertz is also a top-flight key figure for Arteta, even if the zeitgeist has changed for most supporters.
As of 2025, the Germany international has played just 817 minutes, 754 of which came after suffering a serious hamstring injury during warm-weather training in February, and just after completing pre-season, he suffered a knee injury against Manchester United in August that required surgery.
Initially signed for a completely different role, Arteta said at the time of his arrival: “He brings a huge amount of strength to our midfield,” but after Havertz’s experiment with the left-eight didn’t go as planned, he moved on to play as a centre-forward and has scored 29 goals for the Gunners so far.
So what Arteta has shown is that if Havertz is available, he intends to find a place for him in the team, so the idea that Gokeres’ arrival will end his Arsenal career is by no means the case.
Obviously, the pre-season plan was for the pair to time-share the centre-forward role, but no one knows if that would have prevented Gökeres from getting injured, but it would have undoubtedly benefited him, given that the Swede’s best two performances at St James’s Park and Turf Moor both came after he was given rest after the EFL Cup game against Thailand.
But if Arteta once again has enough forwards in place, could there be a new challenger for the No. 9 spot during that fabled “everyone is fit” moment that managers rarely enjoy?
Why Mikel Arteta’s “best finisher” can lead the line
As already outlined, Gokeres, Havertz and Odegaard, as well as Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Jesus, are all hoping to make their long-awaited return in the coming weeks.
Down to last-minute options, Arteta has been forced to return to a well that never seems to run dry in Mikel Merino up front, and while the Gooners thought they were done after last season, all the absences have given Leandro Trossard a chance to seriously stake his claim.
The Belgian is Arsenal’s top scorer for goals and assists so far this season, with four goals each, and this will remain the same from 2025 to 2025, as the table below shows.
Arsenal’s top scorer in 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|
player | the goal | assist |
Leandro Trossard | 10 | 10 |
Mikel Merino | 11 | 6 |
Declan Rice | 9 | 10 |
Martin Odegaard | 5 | 9 |
Gabriel Martinelli | 9 | 3 |
Bukayo Saka | 9 | zero |
Ethan Nwaneri | 5 | 2 |
Victor Gokeres | 6 | zero |
Statistics via Transfermarkt | ||
Trossard has scored crucial goals in both games against Fulham and Athletic Club this season, and he unleashed this absolute rocket on Wearside last Saturday night.
Since joining the club from Brighton in January 2023 for £27m, arguably a better deal than Mykhailo Mudryk, Trossard has been prolific in front of goal, scoring 32 goals and accumulating 27 assists, the most of any Arsenal player in that period.
The Belgian has thus been labeled as “the club’s best finisher”, with Arseblog’s Tim Stillman agreeing, describing him as “an excellent shooter and finisher”, something that Arsenal’s squad generally lacks, and praising his “positional versatility”.
So, given his performance, Arteta will want to have Trossard on the pitch in some way.
With Madueke and Martinelli competing for minutes on the left, could Trossard challenge for minutes at centre-forward, certainly offering something different to Gokeres, and at least putting pressure on the Swede to perform, something he hasn’t been able to do due to the lack of a true replacement?
