Viktor Gyokeres had a ‘tough day at work’ on his Premier League debut for Arsenal, but Freddie Ljungberg is still expecting a good season from his fellow Swede.
It was a successful afternoon for the Gunners as they beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford, kicking off their campaign with a hard-fought three points.
It was not particularly a performance to remember from Mikel Arteta’s side, with the Red Devils causing them a lot of trouble and spurning a number of chances.
It was also a very underwhelming display from Arsenal’s £64m new striker, with Gyokeres not having much impact on the game at all.
There was a willingness to run the channels and he showed off his strength, but didn’t pose a threat to the Manchester United goal and put in a really awful cross at one stage from a promising position.
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The former Sporting man was hooked after an hour, replaced by Kai Havertz on an afternoon that did not go how he would have hoped.
Ljungberg, who won two titles with Arsenal, says it will take time for his countryman to make the step up from the Portuguese top flight to the demands of the Premier League, but is not concerned by the tricky start.
The 48-year-old still thinks Gyokeres will score an impressive number of goals this season, as long as he doesn’t lose confidence by struggling to get off the mark for some time.
‘It was a tough day at work for him,’ Ljungberg told ViaPlay. ‘He obviously wants to score goals and the fans want to see him score goals.
‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is the Premier League, not the Portuguese league. But you can see he has it in him, so I’m not worried.
‘I think he will be around 20 goals this season if he breaks the zero early.’
Arteta defended his striker’s debut, saying that his teammates failed to give him the ball in promising positions a number of times.
‘I think there are seven, eight situations when the ball is completely open to play through and we are in and attacking the ‘keeper,’ Arteta said. ‘We give the ball away and then it becomes a basketball game.’
The manager added on the Swede: ‘Well he did a lot of things very good.
‘You can tell especially in our high press and rhythm that we demand, that especially in the first half we were giving a bit too much time. It is something that we have to work on him, especially there.
‘Then in the final action situation, he did not have that many chances to do that, because in the previous action, we had to play that last ball and the last was standing still with 40 metres to play.
‘We did not manage to put the ball through to exploit his quality. But overall, coming away to Man United, winning your first game with Arsenal, is a good start.’
Manchester United legend Roy Keane suggested Gyokeres will need some time to get up to speed in the Premier League, particularly as he joined pre-season with Arsenal late after his arrival from Sporting and because of his muscular phrame.
‘When you’re a big strong man like that and you do miss pre-season, sometimes for the bigger lads, the big units, he’s a big strong boy like an old fashioned striker, you definitely need a bit more time to get up to speed,’ Keane said on Sky Sports.
‘Sometimes the slighter lads are a bit sharper up there, but for the big lads it just takes a bit longer to get back in the swing of things.’
Arsenal are back in action on Saturday evening when they host Leeds United, when Gyokeres will hope to get off the mark in front of his home fans.
