Man in the mask Gyökeres silences ‘invisible’ taunts to make Arsenal mark
MASKED MARAUDER: Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres celebrates scoring his second and the Gunners' fourth in the comprehensive Champions League win over Atletico Madrid. John Walton/PA Wire.
If Viktor Gyökeres goes on to become the striker all Arsenal supporters have been praying for, then perhaps they will look back on this night as the moment his fortune changed. As the old striker’s mantra goes, it doesn’t matter how they go in.
After a run of nine matches for club and country without a goal and pressure mounting on the man signed for £64m in the summer, a huge wave of relief swept over the Emirates Stadium when Gyökeres scuffed home from close range via a deflection off David Hancko during a pulsating second half when Mikel Arteta’s team showed again that they mean business this season.
Less than three minutes later and to the delight of the home faithful, his mask celebration inspired by the villain Bane in Batman – with the catchphrase that “nobody cared until I put on the mask” – was given another airing after kneeing in from Gabriel Magalhães’s header following a Declan Rice corner to complete the rout against Atlético Madrid. Down on the touchline, Arteta punched the air and gestured animatedly in the direction of his new centre forward, of whom he has spent the past fortnight insisting the best was yet to come.
“This is football, and we can’t expect a player to change contexts and have him do the same thing instantly,” the Arsenal manager said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Marca before this game. “Things are very different. All players in the world need one thing: their state of mind to be at its best. I told Viktor in our first meeting that the No 9 I wanted for Arsenal was someone who could hold up mentally when they went six or eight games without scoring. If not, you’re not good enough at this level. That’s why I have a lot of faith in him.”
It was as a 14-year-old playing for IFK Aspudden-Tellus, who are based in Stockholm’s southern suburbs, that Gyökeres first realised he would have to develop a thick skin to succeed in his chosen profession. Criticised after a poor performance by a coach who said he didn’t have the mentality to make it in top-level football, he ended up being converted from a winger into a striker after joining Brommapojkarna two years later. “That one stuck with me and I still remember it today,” he said recently.
Having failed to score since the win against Nottingham Forest here on September 13, this has been one of the most testing periods of his career. Gyökeres was heavily criticised after Sweden were beaten by Kosovo and Switzerland in World Cup qualifiers in the past fortnight, with one newspaper describing his performance against the latter as “invisible”.
He managed an incredible 54 goals in 52 appearances across all competitions for Sporting last season, so the problem is clearly not his finishing. As Arteta has frequently pointed out, his all‑round play has given Arsenal an extra dimension in attack, even if the chances have not fallen his way.
This was certainly in evidence during the first half of a high‑quality encounter between two teams that had initially seemed evenly matched. There was a sense that Gyökeres was trying too hard to impress as he charged around like a bull in a china shop during the early stages.
An Eberechi Eze shot that defected on to the bar inside the opening five minutes was created by some sharp footwork on the edge of the Atlético area that niftily took him away from his marker, José María Giménez. The Uruguayan has the air of a man who could start a fight in an empty bar but he is vastly experienced at this level compared with Gyökeres, who is playing in only his second Champions League campaign after scoring a hat-trick for Sporting against Manchester City last season that must have gone a long way to persuading Arteta to take the plunge.
Yet having attracted criticism that he was carrying a few too many pounds after missing most of pre‑season in Portugal, Arsenal’s much more svelte‑looking striker chased down every ball as if his life depended on it. Giménez was tricked into conceding a yellow card when Gyökeres ran into him on the edge of the Atlético area having merely stood his ground. Gabriel Martinelli saw his effort disallowed for offside after tapping in Bukayo Saka’s cross and it wasn’t until after the break that the Swede had his first sight of goal.
A sumptuous flick from Martinelli set up Gyökeres perfectly, only for Jan Oblak to quickly smother an unconvincing toe‑poke towards goal. At that stage it must have felt like the breakthrough would never come. But the floodgates opened when Gabriel headed home Rice’s free-kick and Gyökeres was able to take full advantage as the man in the mask made his mark.
“Hopefully this is the start of some beautiful sequences,” a delighted Arteta said.
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