“Leave him alone!” Mikel Arteta launches STRONG defence of Viktor Gyökeres – Every word from embargoed press conference

Mikel Arteta has launched a strong defence of Viktor Gyökeres as Arsenal prepare to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening.

Arsenal head back home to the Emirates after two games on the road, first losing 2-1 against Aston Villa in the dying moments before defeating Club Brugge 3-0 in the Champions League.

Both Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke have come away from the European tie with plenty of plaudits to their names, although much of of the focus has instead been on Arsenal’s striking optoins.

Viktor Gyökeres signed for Arsenal in a deal worth up to £64 million including add-ons, but injuries and six goals in 18 games have left some feeling there was a higher expectation, following his 52 strikes for Sporting CP last season.

Meanwhile, Brazilian Gabriel Jesus finally made his long-awaited return from injury and made a strong impression vs Brugge, leading to questions about who should be starting up front for Arsenal as they prepare to face Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Below is an entire transcript of the embargoed section of Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference, which took place on Friday morning.

Because Gabriel is quite versatile at the front, do you see a situation where you’re starting games with him and Victor? And how strong do you think that would be?

Very strong, and both players probably like to play a little bit shifted to the left side, so an interchange in that position something that we haven’t had yet. And when we put an extra body closer to the box in central positions, that’s something that we can work on so make sure that we keep them fit and we will have many options.

And if you add also Mikel Merino and Kai [Havertz] when he comes back, that’s quite a strong option. Would you say that’s probably the strongest set of options in the Premier League for players in one team?

We’ll put them one on top of each other! [Laughs]

In terms of, do you think you’ve got the best options of central strikers in any other club?

I don’t know. I don’t like to compare. I think we have a very very strong personnel in that position. It’s how we fit them in together probably is very very difficult at the same time, depending on the context of the game but I’m very happy with the players that we have, and hopefully… so far we haven’t had any six months of the competition. We haven’t had two of those for anything. Victor not even a part of that as well. So hopefully we are in that position.

Miles [Lews-Skelly] had an amazing ascent last year. He played in a completely different position, left back and shifted, and got the England squad, so he’ll play tomorrow. How do you keep him? How do you explain to him about the games that he might play? This is because he’s obviously not played as much. Do you have to sit down with him and talk to him about that? And how do you keep him sort of ready for the games? And he had a tricky game against [Carlos] Forbs, for example.

Probably looking at where he is— 18 years old, 50 appearances for the club. I want to see how many examples there are in English football with that number. At that age. That’s a reality. That’s not if, if, if. That’s a reality. So if somebody would have told him, any of us, two years ago, that number, with the squad that we have, probably would go, hmm, it doesn’t sound very realistic.

Does it become harder in this season, particularly for the World Cup, if you’ve got him or Gabi Jesus, who are going to want to get into the World Cup teams and think, well, if I don’t play as much for my club, I might not get to my national team. Does this season become harder for a manager?

That’s a really bad approach, in my opinion. The approach has to be what we have to be, to be in the team as much as possible, and the rest will be a consequence. If somebody is going to prioritise something for the World Cup, I think we have a big problem there.

Hi Mikel, with Victor Gyökeres, during the summer it was obviously a long transfer window and you ended up getting Victor. What did you kind of expect from his signing when you bought him and what has transpired so far do you think?

Well, two things. First of all, a lot of excitement as it happened because we were bringing in a proven goal scorer that had probably the best stats in Europe. And the second one, a player that comes to a different league, most demanding league in the world, what happens if he doesn’t score for five or six goals? That was my only question.

How are you going to react if you don’t score in five or six goals? Can you cope with that? And then what’s going to happen in the next 100 games? And that’s what we have to see. Again, the sample is very small. Leave him alone, let him do what he does best, be behind him and I’m sure things will turn out in the right way.

I know it’s a small sample size, but thus far he hasn’t, he’s not amid the goals. Why do you think that is, and how do you think, see things changing from here to the end of the season with Victor in the goals?

Well, working, understanding what he needs more, understanding the things he needs to tweak in this league, in our team, to be more prolific and to be in more dangerous positions. The other night he had two big chances as well and put him as much as possible in that position and he will do for sure what he wants because he wants it so badly as well.

So Gabriel Jesus has come back, and he looked very impressive in that half-hour cameo. How has his return affected the dressing room, and how good does it feel to have another striker who brings something different to your team?

Well, the dressing room, obviously, he’s somebody that infects with energy. He has a smile on his face, he’s somebody that connects with people really, really well, and he brings a different edge to the team because we know that Gabi is a player that can create chaos in any moment in the manner that he plays.

Thierry Henry had quite a few things to say about the loss against Villa the other day. He ended it with saying, ‘The fear of winning is sometimes bigger than the fear of losing.’ What’s your thoughts on that comment?

I don’t know, I never comment on what other people think. It’s what I think.