Viktor Gyokeres entered the room with an air of confidence. This was not a striker who appeared nervous as Arsenal compete to win both the Premier League and Champions League.
The experience of the former Sporting CP man, who won back to back titles in Portugal, will be crucial to the Gunners as we enter the final straight of the 2025/26 season.
Gyokeres has spearheaded Arsenal’s chase for their ultimate goal for the majority of the season and has now urged his teammates to bring focus and enjoyment to the title run-in despite the weight of hope and expectation on their shoulders.
Speaking exclusively to football.london, Gyokeres explained what it takes mentally to win a league campaign. “You have to be so focused every game and take every game as seriously as you can, no matter who you play. All the points that you get count in the end,” the 27-year-old said.
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“You have to think like that, but also not to get too frustrated if it doesn’t go your way because it’s always a long season and there’s still a lot to play for.
“Even now, when we’re in April, there’s a lot of games still to play, we just have to focus on doing our job and to enjoy it. Not think too much about what can happen or how the end result is going to be. I think the most important thing is to play football and to enjoy it on the pitch.”
There was a major effort in the summer to add depth to the Arsenal squad. Mikel Arteta wanted at least two strong candidates for each position, with Gyokeres joining Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus as the centre-forward options.
However, alongside this depth of quality was an attention to the experience of winning. Martin Zubimendi, a Copa del Rey winner with Real Sociedad, Eberechi Eze, an FA Cup winner with Crystal Palace, and Piero Hincapie, an invincible Bundesliga title-holder, all joined.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, a multi-cup-winning keeper, and Noni Madueke, a UEFA Conference League winner and part of the Chelsea group that would go on to win the Club World Cup, also signed. These experienced winners will undoubtedly help those in the squad who have come up short in recent seasons, but while Gyokeres agrees different mindsets and perspectives are important, everyone must have the same intention – to win trophies.
“Every player has different experiences through their careers and different feelings about the same situations,” he said. “I think it’s always important to come with a different mindset sometimes and to look at it in a different way.
“But with the same intentions as everyone else in the club, and together with everyone. We have a lot of players in the team who have won trophies, and that’s what we want to do again this season.”
It isn’t just players, however. Gabriel Heinze joined the coaching staff in the summer just before the £63.5million striker’s arrival, and has added his own experiences of winning, too.
A Premier League, Ligue 1 and La Liga winner as a player, the Argentine knows exactly what it takes to be victorious. With the Gunners having the best goalscoring and defensive record this season in the English top flight, his influence is clear and despite working at the other end of the field to Heinze’s main focus, Gyokeres detailed his benefits.
“I think he brings a lot of good energy into the group,” Gyokeres said. “He has a good drive in him, and I think that spreads throughout the group. A lot of experience as a player as well. He brings a lot.”
Arteta has taken so many players under his wing as Arsenal’s manager, trying to get the maximum from them and help improve them. Players like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber have been developed from a young age and now stand among the world’s elite for their positions.
Even players who arrived later in their careers, such as Havertz, David Raya, Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard, have made big strides. Gyokeres falls in the age bracket of the latter, and while he remains very new and has had limited time with his new coach, he admits to being introduced to plenty of new things, and there is a clear, holistic and individual plan of development on a daily basis for players.
“It’s been very interesting,” he said. “A lot of new things, you learn a lot every day here.
“So, in that sense, it’s great. He tries to improve us every day, individually and as a team. I just try to be the best I can in training and in the games. Go forward as a player and as a team.”
Gyokeres has netted 17 goals across all competitions this season, six clear of the nearest top scorer in the team. Despite having periods of challenge, Arteta spoke in October when the striker had just three goals to his name, about what he wanted in the player.
“I told him, before the first meeting, the (number) nine that I want is a nine that when he doesn’t score for six or eight games, he can handle that,” Arteta said. “If not, we have to go somewhere else.
“Because the pressure, the expectation is going to be there so if you put on the number nine shirt for Arsenal, you have to be able to say, ‘six games, don’t score, am I a different player? And start to act in a different way.
“I want much more of the same of what he’s doing and yeah, when we have to opportunities (put them away). I am sure he is going to do it.”
Gyokeres is an unfazed character, with confidence in his ability. When asked about Arteta’s comments, it was clear that there is a belief in the contribution to the team and the winning of the game was the priority, no matter how good it feels to score goals.
“It’s always the best feeling if we win games and I score as many goals as I can in the game, that’s the best feeling as a striker, no matter what anyone says,” the Sweden international said. “I think everyone who plays as a nine wants that, but then that’s not the reality.
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“You’re going to have games where you don’t score, maybe you didn’t get the chances, or you didn’t take them. Just stay focused and be ready because it’s going to come. And when it comes, you have to be ready.”
Collectively, Arsenal have drawn plenty of scrutiny, and eliminations from the League Cup and FA Cup only heightened that. Suggestions of nerves permeating through the team, leading to tense matches, have been a mainstay in the mainstream discussion around the Gunners.
Some might dismiss this when asked about it, even if indeed the nerves are present, believing that they show some sense of weakness. Not Gyokeres.
Nerves, for the Swede, are only something bad if you allow them to become something bad. Nerves make you human, and instead of them being a sign of fearfulness, instead, they indicate how much someone truly cares for something, as this Arsenal team cares deeply about winning this Premier League title.
“I think if you feel nerves, I think it means that it matters for you,” he stated. “I think it’s not bad if you take it in the right way and you put that energy in the right direction.
“So to have nerves, I think it’s not a bad thing. It’s just bad if you convert it into something negative, and it depends on how you handle those emotions.”
