Mikel Arteta has leapt to the defence of Viktor Gyokeres and told his Arsenal players that they must create more chances for their new star striker.
Gyokeres has made a steady start to life at the Emirates Stadium following his high-profile £64million move from Sporting in the summer.
The Swede has scored three goals in his first six matches for Arsenal to date, but struggled in big games against Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Gyokeres failed to find the net in any of those games, with his latest blank coming in Sunday’s 1-1 home draw with City.
Arteta, however, has not laid the blame for that at the striker’s door and instead stressed the need for him to be given more service.
“Well there were a lot of very good balls in the box, especially I remember three of them that he was very, very close to doing [something with] against City,” said Arteta.
“To have very big open chances is extremely difficult, but he’s certainly trying his best and trying to do that and we have to provide more for him, that’s it.
“There were a lot of situations where the chances were there and then the final pass was missing today. In many moments it was very, very open.”
Arteta’s assessment was similar to that of former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who was working on Sky Sports as a pundit for Sunday’s game against City.
“It was asked before the show, ‘is Gyokeres the guy to win them the title?’, and he’s had a little bit of criticism for his performances in the big games away,” Carragher said.
“He hasn’t had a kick today and he might get criticism again on the back of the game, but I don’t think in those three games he’s had a chance. They haven’t created a chance for him.
“So I go back to when people keep saying, ‘Arsenal’s problem is finishing’, but it’s not, it’s creating. They don’t create enough… they haven’t created one chance for him.”
