Viktor Gyokeres’ former coaches reveal the secrets to the Sporting Lisbon star’s success ahead of Arsenal clash – and outline how Mikel Arteta’s side can nullify Europe’s hottest property

The overlapping hands-on-face celebration coupled with goals from a multitude of avenues for Sporting Lisbon will have been enough to muddy the minds of Arsenal’s match analysts.

Similar to the effect felt by defenders who have tried and, often, failed to contain Viktor Gyokeres, arguably Europe’s hottest property.

Concerningly for Mikel Arteta, there is one particular deficiency in his team which has yet to be addressed thus far — playing away from home in Europe.

Across their four Champions League away fixtures in 2024, the Gunners’ tally reads: three defeats and one draw.

For Gyokeres, this calendar year has brought 59 goals in 55 games for club and country, leaving the striker in line for a move to the Premier League very soon; Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea are all linked.

The goals and performances have flung the 26-year-old into the limelight and, after netting a hat-trick against Manchester City at the Estadio Jose Alvalade on November 5, he now faces a crunch clash against centre-back pairing William Saliba and Gabriel.

The Swedish international has quickly become one of Europe’s most prolific strikers

However the Gunners have endured a rough campaign away from home in Europe this year

It is some duel but to understand how he’s learnt to navigate defences, you have to go all the way back to his formative years in Sweden under the tutelage of father Stefan.

The Stockholm-born striker joined IFK Aspudden-Tellus in 2004. Club president Bjorn Thuresson remembers a child who, from the start, knew he wanted to be a footballer.

‘It was very, very clear that this guy wanted to be a football player from the age of like seven,’ he tells Mail Sport.

‘He was super, super focused and dedicated. I haven’t heard anyone remembering him talking about anything but football!

‘Some aspects of his play now were apparent in his very early years, to always want to score a goal, always take the shortest route towards the goal.’

The club had three different sides in the same age group to cater for all abilities — beginners, intermediate and advanced. Gyokeres would often play for all three teams in the same week, just so he could be on the pitch.

He says: ‘In the more competitive teams, he could of course have a more fixed role but in these other more maturing teams or situations, he had to take on different roles.

‘When the competition on the other side was less good, he took on different roles instead of just scoring goals. Because in those games, he could have scored 10 goals, but it would have been for the benefit of no one.

Gyokeres would often play for three teams in the same week, just so he could be on the pitch 

His former coaches reveal how he would take on different roles within a match

‘So then he could be in a role that was more delivering balls to others, trying to control the rhythm from further back. And he, at times, also worked as a defender and as a wing player.’

It is this grounding that helped teach Gyokeres how to play against defences as a striker. He understands the psyche of opposition defenders and how they will likely react.

Thuresson says: ‘That (playing different roles) is something that Stefan, his father, said is a good thing for him when it comes to a pedagogical setting.

‘In the earlier, more forming years, to be able to play in a lot of different positions and to take on very different responsibilities is something that you learn a lot from.’

Stefan, who coached the 1998-born year group for IFK Aspudden-Tellus, had mapped out his son’s path. That included rejecting the academies of well-established clubs in the city — a path the majority of European talents go down.

Gyokeres is different in this way, waiting until the age of 14 before signing with IF Brommapojkarna.

‘Stefan convinced Victor that he should stay a bit longer with us because the opportunities we have, they can play as much football as they want,’ he adds.

‘You can have as many practice games as you want. He made him stay on for another two years or something.

Gyokeres never made a senior appearance for the Seagull before leaving for Coventry

‘If you go very early to an academy, you’re typically assigned a role, and then you develop that role in a deep sense, but you’re rarely moved between the different parts.’

Ex-centre back Uwe Hunemeier was at Brighton when Gyokeres joined the club in January 2018. The forward never made a senior appearance for the Seagulls and, after loan spells to German second-tier side St Pauli and Championship teams Coventry and Swansea, he was sold for good to Coventry.

It was a move that clearly hadn’t worked out at all. Hunemeier, who is now an assistant coach at SC Paderborn 07 in Bundesliga 2, has played against Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski. He can see those comparisons, having played and trained with him.

So, how should Saliba and Gabriel stop him?

‘I played against Lewandowski and Haaland – you need to be really quick to stop these players because they have a physical strength in their game, and they are really quick (in the mind),’ he tells Mail Sport.

‘When a striker (like Gyokeres) has confidence it’s so hard for a defender to trouble you. You have to be on his foot, most of the time, but you have to be alert in every second of the game because he’s strong with his head, strong with his left foot, on his right foot, reading the game, going in behind, holding up play.

Arsenal’s Saliba (left) and Gabriel (right) will be tasked with stopping the in-form Swede

‘You also need to be in his back to stop these kind of players. They want to cut into your back so you can’t see them. That makes it so difficult with a good striker. They always find a way to get some space.

‘He’s strong but not as strong as maybe Haaland or Lewandowski because he’s not as big as these players. You have to be tight, give him a nudge in duels to try get him off the ball. But he can score any kind of goal from what I have seen in the last few months.

‘Most of the quick strikers I would say they have a good nose for what’s coming next, but he realizes the situation probably earlier than most of the centre backs.’

Whichever way Saliba and Gabriel try to thwart him, Gyokeres will certainly take some stopping.