He left for cheap: Arsenal may have already sold their own Gyokeres in "monster" ace - opinion

Last January concerns were raised about the quality of Arsenal’s attack. They were struggling in the final third, lacking purpose, cutting edge and most important of all, goals.

Over the festive and New Year period, there was a run of games where the Gunners scored just once over three games with West Ham, Fulham and Liverpool.

So, what happened next? Various targets were reported including Ivan Toney. Arsenal wanted the player for a bit before turning their attention elsewhere and passing up on the opportunity to bolster their offence.

Ivan-Toney-Mikel-Arteta

That turned out to be the right decision as Mikel Arteta’s men began to run riot as 2024 went on. Indeed, throughout a run in February and March where Arteta's team won six games on the bounce, they ended up scoring 26 goals. Incredible stuff, yet it still wasn’t enough to help win them the title.

What happened in the transfer market? Well, they missed out on a striker again.

Arsenal’s attempts to sign a striker

Edu and Co made up their minds early last summer. Benjamin Sesko was the primary target and they wanted to prise his services away from German employers RB Leipzig.

Arsenal-Sesko-Leipzig

A deal never materialised for the Slovenian striker who ended up staying in the Bundesliga, penning a new contract that got rid of his release clause.

Another striker target was Victor Gyokeres. Plenty of reports suggested that the Gunners wanted to sign the Swede with one claim even suggesting that he was set to sign. That, of course, was not true.

Playing under incoming Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim at Sporting, he has been a revelation.

Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres. 

Sold by Brighton for just £1m to Coventry City, the hulking centre forward then moved to the Portuguese capital in the summer of 2023. Since then, he’s not stopped scoring.

The 2024/25 campaign has been a particularly notable one for Gyokeres who is showing exactly why Arsenal should have signed him.

The 26-year-old is very much at the peak of his powers having scored 23 times in 17 appearances, three of which came in a stunning display against Manchester City on Tuesday evening.

Sporting sealed a remarkable 4-1 win with Gyokeres the undoubted hero, scoring a brilliant hat-trick past Pep Guardiola’s stunned side.

With Arsenal having now failed to win in their last three Premier League games, they could certainly do with a marksman of the Sweden international’s free-scoring ability.

Kai Havertz has done a sterling job as Arsenal’s lead attacker this campaign, bagging seven goals in 15 fixtures and looking every bit the type of striker who could hit 20 plus.

However, it’s not Gyokeres levels, is it? The colossal former Coventry star scored 43 times last season and looks well on his way to matching that tally this time around.

So, who was Arsenal’s very own Gyokeres and where is he now? Well, coincidentally, he’s playing for Man United where Amorim could well find he has another new big-money striker lying in wait.

The player we’re talking about here is teenage sensation Chido Obi-Martin, who in the words of analyst Ben Mattinson, "is a monster on the pitch."

Both boast powerful frames, Obi-Martin is only recently a United player after leaving the Arsenal academy behind without a single first-team minute to his name.

The motivation behind leaving remains to be seen but what is for certain is that the north Londoners have lost one of the best strikers at academy level in the country.

The Denmark youth international was a freak in front of goal last season. During a run of nine games from 16th March to 11th May, he netted on 28 occasions. Yes, that's right, 28 in nine games. It’s utterly mind-blowing stuff.

At U18 level, the 16-year-old star bagged 32 in 18 across the entire campaign but that wasn’t all he achieved.

There was a seven goal haul for Arsenal’s U18s against Norwich and he even scored a simply unbelievable haul of ten goals in one game for the U16s against Liverpool.

This is an unparalleled level of goalscoring and it’s rather ironic that he’s now set to learn from Amorim, the very man who has helped turn Gyokeres into one of the most sought-after strikers on the continent.

The Portuguese will be rubbing his hands with glee at Arsenal’s expense who have lost a budding young striker ready to emulate the Sporting goal machine.